P.E.I. psychiatrists 'overworked,' need more support

If P.E.I. wants to keep psychiatrists in the province it needs to find a way to support them, says the past president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.

With the loss of another psychiatrist from Unit 9 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital earlier this month, there are now three psychiatric vacancies at the hospital.

Dr. Wei-Yi Song said a shortage of psychiatrists across the country means many doctors have too many patients.

"One of the main issues in P.E.I. is overwork. So the psychiatrists working the system are overworked and so if they can leave, they will," said Song.

"The important thing is to have infrastructure, to have a team that will support psychiatrist's work."

Psychiatrists in Canada are aging and the problem will only get worse, said Song.

Some provinces have worked around the problem by providing support with nurse practitioners or general practitioners with more mental health training, he said.

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