Minister confident of turning the tide on mental health in Quebec

Quebec Minister Lionel Carmant is confident the tide is turning as waiting lists for mental health services have declined in the province.

Although he acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to be done in mental health, Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant is confident that he has succeeded in reversing the trend.

He points to the decrease in waiting lists for services in recent months as proof of this.

In May 2024, there were 16,605 people waiting to receive mental health services, according to the government's dashboard. Three months later, that number had fallen to 14,585. While the figure remains significant, the minister is confident that it is a trend in the right direction.

"Week after week, we see the decrease," the minister said in an interview with The Canadian Press in his office at the National Assembly.

Carmant maintains that it's the addition of walk-in services that has done its work.

"The deployment of this measure will enable us to continue to see an improvement in waiting lists," he said.

He gave the example of open areas, which are resources for young people aged 12 to 25, their families and loved ones, offering various front-line services. The minister pointed out that there are around 40 of them in Quebec.

"The strategy is to open the front doors and, once the person knocks on the door, to make sure we accompany them to the right service," said Carmant.

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for mental health services, and although it is now behind us, the mnister maintains that its effects have not completely faded.

"The needs are still there. The increase in demand is still there. I would say that the world has changed since the pandemic. People are more vocal about their mental health needs, but people are more impatient too," he explained.

Asylum seekers and mental health

Premier François Legault has made immigration his hobbyhorse and keeps hammering away at the need for the federal government to better distribute asylum seekers in the rest of Canada.

In June, he made a "certain link" between "the explosion in the number of asylum seekers" and "the explosion in the number of homeless people and people with mental health problems."

Asked in the interview whether it was necessary to reduce the number of asylum seekers in Quebec to bring down waiting lists, the minister replied in the negative: "Not at all. We want to improve access to service. That's the priority and it's not something I take into account in my decisions," he said.

"Of course, if there are fewer immigrants with mental health problems, that will help (the situation)," he added.

$11 billion deficit

Carmant also said that his government's desire to tighten public finances after its historic $11 billion deficit will have no impact on mental health services.

"Most of the things we've done are related to a reorganization of services," explained the minister.

He gave the example of the deployment of walk-in services in CLSCs.

He also pointed out that positions are funded, but are slow to be filled because of the shortage of manpower.

"It's more a human resources issue than a funding issue,' the minister said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Oct. 10, 2024.