Staff shortage keeps Cape Breton youth waiting for mental health care

Youth in Cape Breton have to wait longer for mental health care than anywhere else in the province, and health officials say it's because they can't get mental health professionals to move to and stay on the island.

The Nova Scotia Health Authority says anyone in urgent need of treatment for mental health or addictions problems should be seen within sevendays, and anyone with non-urgent need for treatment should be seen within four weeks.

In the third quarter of 2019, the most recent period for which data is available, the urgent-care wait-time standard was met for youth everywhere in Nova Scotia. But for non-urgent care, nine out of 12 regions failed the wait-time standard for youth.

Youth in the Industrial Cape Breton region had the longest waits, as much as seven times longer than the four-week standard, and health officials saya clinician shortage is the cause.

"The biggest challenge within the Cape Breton area is our recruitment and retention of our workforce," said Samantha Hodder, senior director of mental health and addictions services for the health authority.

A 'critical shortage' of mental health-care providers

It is recruitingPhD psychologists, social workers with masters degrees, registered counselling therapists, occupational therapists and registered nurses who specialize in mental health and addictions.

"Cape Breton is in a critical shortage right now in relation to those providers," said Hodder.

Nadine Wadden director of mental health and addictions for the health authority's eastern zone, which includes Cape Breton said it's hard to attract clinicians to remote, rural settings.

"We're often faced with clinicians who are looking to move into bigger cities and relocate," she said.

Hodder said her department established a recruitment team about 18 months ago, which seemed to help fill some of the vacant positions, but a slew of retirements and relocations last fall reversed that progress.

Early intervention

While Cape Breton lags behind the rest of the province in meeting wait-time standards, the island has been a leader in other aspects of youth mental health care.

Hodder and Wadden were both at Province House Tuesday to speak about outreach programs for youth that are at risk for mental health and addiction problems. One such program started in Cape Breton over a decade ago and was expanded in 2018 in the wake of three teen suicides.

It's since been replicated across the province and is now available at 99 Nova Scotia schools.

Hodder said early intervention builds resiliency and teaches coping mechanisms, which can mitigate the severity of mental illness.

Although Hodder doesn't have numbers to prove it, she believes the early intervention model is diverting youth away from "higher levels" of care, such as the clinical care that individuals are now waiting months to receive.

If you are in distress or considering suicide, there are places to turn for support. Nova Scotia's Mental Health Mobile Crisis Team can be reached at 1-888-429-8167 or 902-429-8167 or Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868.You can also go to the nearest hospital emergency room.