This article was written for and first published by The Blind Spot, a publication of the Ontario Indepedent Media Centre

Mental health care has been under scrutiny of late in Kitchener-Waterloo due to the on-going inquest into the suicide deaths of three men at Grand River Hospital over a four month period from late 2000 into 2001. The number of suicides and where they occurred send a strong message that the needs of too many mental health consumers are not being adequately met.

Despite the fact that we have an under-funded and ove-rburdened system and that people are dying, any proposed changes that may help some down the road are not enough now. Lives hang in the balance.

There are too many people that cannot get the help they seek, even when they are strong advocates for themselves. There is too much of an unrealistic burden being placed upon the self-help movement due to the failure of the system to deliver adequate and timely care to mental health consumers. According to Sandra Parkinson, who is the community development and education services coordinator with the Canadian Mental Health Association, the delivery of mental services "is a complex issue that is not black and white."

Parkinson added that there is currently a task force, the South West Mental Health Implementation Task Force, "with the intention to look at the system overall, not who is providing the services, but what kind of care, service and support we can implement in our community based on input from mental health consumers."

Mental health care has to become much more consumer-oriented. As it is now, and has always been, it is a system that all-too-often serves itself to the detriment of those it is mandated to provide services to.

Trying to access mental health care when one has complex issues meets with an affront to one's dignity, and injustice abounds. There is stigma and often judgment that comes when one seeks help from the very system that is being funded to serve them. When those who work in the system start asking those seeking help what they are expected to do for them, we are all in trouble. It is not unusual for someone in crisis to call the crisis clinic or present themselves at the emergency department of the Grand River Hospital and be asked over and over what he/ she expects from being there and what he/she needs. This is an example of systemic igno- rance and insensitivity.

When you take your car to the mechanic, he/she doesn't ask you where your engine is, and then basically throw up his/her hands as if there is nothing he can do without you pointing directly to the problem. So it goes with mental health services. Many consumers in crisis, suffering terribly, don't know what spot in their psyche to point to. The result often is that no real help is forthcoming, and they exit the system via the same revolving door that they entered the system through. It is difficult to survive the pain that trying to access the system can often cause, on top of the pain that many who need help are already in.

We need more advocates and watch-dogs of a system that continues to do what is convenient for itself rather than help those who it is intended to serve.

A.J.'s General Articles

as of February 4, 2002