Mental Health Policy in the Community

What supports are in place to ensure the maintenance of the mental health in the community, following institutionalization? What responsibility does policy play, especially if these seniors are not apart of a broader organization, such as employment or a member of a welfare program? I strongly believe mental health supports need to be more accessible, especially for our older adult population who face immense barriers. I think about how a 60 minute session with my therapist costs $250, something that is thankfully covered by insurance through my employer. Yet how could someone, especially an older adult who likely is not working and relying on a fixed income, be able to routinely afford a therapist for their mental health maintenance. Recently the Alberta government created a fee guide for dental services. The goal of this policy guiding document was to “increase transparency, which encourages competition and reins in costs over time. In other provinces, the vast majority of dentists align their fees with their province’s fee guide“ (Government of Alberta, 2019). Although dentists and psychologists have different scopes of practice, this concept of a psychologist fee guide would greatly benefit the transparency and hopefully in the long run, affordability of mental health services. 

Our current healthcare model does not enable our community dwelling seniors to be preventative in terms of their normal or abnormal mental health issues. As the Mental Health Commission of Canada Seniors Guidelines suggests, health services could be reoriented towards mental health promotion and illness prevention. Currently our biomedical model for health services refers crisis patients onwards for diagnosis and treatment (MacCourt, Tuokko, Tierney, 2002). The World Health Organization acknowledges that “effective, community-level primary mental health care of older people is crucial” (2017). One key action item from WHO’s global strategy and action plan on ageing and health is “developing and ensuring affordable access to quality older person-centred and integrated clinical care” (2017), something which I think could still be improved on in the province of Alberta.

References

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