Nova Scotia and its mental health plan: how is it going?

Posted on 05/05/2011 | 0 Comments

Nova Scotia is once again developing a mental health plan. I have been active in mental health in the Province since 1995 and have seen at least half a dozen or more Provincial and Regional planning processes addressing mental health over that time. Some “wag” once said that if the number of mental health plans sitting in the Department of Health where laid end to end then we would have a pathway of good intentions leading from Province House to the Elephant and Castle.
 
While I can not vouch for the accuracy of that comment I can certainly resonate with the emotions behind it. And in a recent story on this issue the Chronicle Herald newspaper reported a similar concern by a participant about the current process: “"These are the same issues that have being going on for 25, 30 or 40 years now," one person said. "What’s going to be different?" - http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1241478.html. 
 
That is an excellent question. 
 
The issue frankly is not that we do not know what to do. The previous Bland Report had a number of excellent recommendations that have not yet seen the light of day in Nova Scotia. The newly available document from the MHCC provides a useful call to action. The Evergreen Framework provides a set of values and strategic directions that could be easily incorporated by the Province in addressing child and youth mental health now. The World Health Organization has produced realms of useful documents/materials ranging from the MHPP monographs to the mhGAP. Recently released mental health documents from British Columbia and Ontario have excellent components that could easily be modified for use in NS.
 
And the list goes on.
 
The issue is doing, and making sure that what is done is based on what we know and supported by strong and independent evaluation of what we are doing so that we can change things that are ineffective or inefficient and replace them with actions that are effective and efficient. 
 
We also need to ensure that the appropriate funds are in place to permit necessary action to happen. The mental health budget for Nova Scotia is woefully inadequate. No plan will be useful if it is not properly resourced. 
 
So what will happen? Follow the money!

-Stan

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Recent Comment

This is a great set of comments and rings very true. 

I totally agree that scientists (just like everyone else) have their biases and foibles.  After all, scientists are human beings too!  But science is different than scientists. 

The scientific method is the most objective frame that we have by which to evaluate and predict.  Science is not about finding truth.  It is only about being less wrong most of the time.  The scientific method (experimental design and mathematics) gives us the ability to test what we believe.  The scientific method is not used to prove something is correct, on the contrary, the scientific method is designed to prove that something is not correct!  It is designed to test what is called the “null hypothesis”.  It takes ideas that come out of left field (or wherever else they come from) and puts those ideas to an independent test.

t does not drive our beliefs.  It does however challenge our beliefs.  In that way it is self-correcting. Of course scientific inquiry and understanding lives within a wider social context.  That is one of the great features of science. 

But gravity is gravity, social context notwithstanding.  And thus it is nasty, brutish and long.  As Brecht said, (something like this) - the purpose of science is to save us from everlasting error.

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