A New Brunswick psychologist says while there’s always been a demand for mental health support, the need has been exacerbated by COVID-19.
Now, Dr. Shannon Glenn says she has to turn away patients from her private practice because it’s overcapacity.
“To know that I’m able to see [only] this many people but the need is [so] big, is difficult,” she says. “And not only that, when I say no, I don’t know where they’re going to go because I know most of my colleagues are in the same boat.”
“We find ourselves kind of taking more clients when we might be full,” Glenn says, “I’m now over-full, working kind of through lunch breaks, that sort of thing, trying to meet the demand.”
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Having to turn away clients is difficult for someone who entered a profession seeking to help people.
Glenn says clients come in with more severe concerns and people are seeking therapy more frequently as a result of COVID-19.
“No matter what you’re going through in your life, now there’s this extra layer of stress associated with the pandemic,” she says.
Beyond the health crisis forcing people to stay home, to cope with work or child-care issues or deal with financial uncertainty, there’s also the winter blues.
Crisis lines can help with emergencies, but those don’t necessarily support long-term treatment says, Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee, a clinical psychologist in Toronto and founder and director of Silm Centre for Mental Health.
She says after crisis lines, there are hospitals and community health centres.
“They’re oftentimes limited with giant waitlists and you have to be ‘sick enough,’” Alani-Verjee says.
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Alternatively, there are private clinics.
“Services can be quite expensive ranging from about $80 to $300 per therapy session,” she says.
There can also be more barriers to people who identify as BIPOC, Alani-Verjee says.
A five-year provincial mental health action plan is expected to be released next week or the following Monday, says Dorothy Shephard, the province’s health minister. It comes after consultations with a variety of mental health organizations, she says.
“Probably the number one concern was access to care in a timely fashion, and that’s what we are trying to focus on,” Shephard says, adding the provincial government is looking at putting 14 walk-in mental health clinics across the province.
As for Glenn, the Fredericton psychologist, she says her hope is simply “the more that we talk about this, we’ll be able to come up with more creative solutions.”
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