Mental health advocate challenges province to make good on promise

A longtime advocate for people suffering with mental illness hopes 2022 will be the year the New Brunswick government finally makes good on a promise that's more than two years old.

Paul Ouellet lobbied foryears for New Brunswick to appoint a mental health advocate. He celebrated in November 2019when a motion passed unanimously in the legislature to introduce the position, but nothing has happened since.

"To me that is unacceptable," he said. "That a motion voted unanimously over two years ago has not yet been actioned."

Introduced by the Liberals, the original 2019 motion called on the Progressive Conservativegovernment to create anindependent legislative officer position, to representpeople with mental health issues and their caregivers.

When the Higgs government refused, the motion was amended to create a mental health advocate position, but that has never been budgeted for, noracted upon.

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Ouellethas two siblings withschizophrenia, and he has helped to care for them for decades.

He has seen firsthand the difficulties that families like his face trying get patients the help they need.

Ouellet has fought for adequate home care for his sister on several occasions and has seen her spiral into psychosis requiringhospitalization when nocare providers were available tohelp her manage her medication.

He now worries she will have to move into a special care home since the health system cannot provide what she needs.

"Mentally ill individuals don't have a voice," said Ouellet, a retired civil servant. "Those individuals in the community that I journey with, who suffer from mental illness, and I accompany them to the clinic and other appointments that they have, I so often see that they're not fully understood and they're not capable to speak for themselves."

Wish list for new year

In a letter to Health Minister Dorothy Shephard in October, Ouelletoutlinedhis top priorities for the new year.

In addition to the appointment of a mental health advocate for New Brunswick, he asked thatthe mental health court that operates in Saint John be expanded to Fredericton, Bathurst, Edmundston, Miramichi and Moncton.

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He is also calling fora mental health addiction treatment centre in Moncton that would be exclusively for women.

CBC News tried to askShephardwhy the province hasn't yet appointed a mental health advocate, and when someone will be appointed.

No one from the Departmentof Health has responded.

Ouellethas received a letter from Shephardin which she explained that work continues on multiple initiatives. He said her response was not what he was hoping for.

"I sometimes wonder if our high ranking officials in government are sensitized to mental illness. I ask myself that question because it has been a need for years."

Ouellet is calling on Shephard and the Higgs government to finally appoint an advocate to represent the concerns of those who are all too often unable to get the help "they truly and deeply need."

"We definitely need an advocate position to be there for those most vulnerable in our province the mentally ill. They need someone to be there to help them navigate the system, someone to be there to make sure their rights are respected, and that they're treated with dignity."

Mental health plan not enough

In February, Shephard laid out a five-year action plan to improve mental health services in the province.

It includes a promise for same-day service at walk-in clinics across New Brunswick, and a provincial youth centre based in Moncton by 2024.

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It did not include any mention of appointing a mental health advocate.

Ouellet said that after decades of helping his sisters and brother and many others navigate the mental health care system,the plan simply does not go far enough.

"If I would not have been journeying with them for the past 47 years, I don't think honestly that they would be alive today," he said of his siblings.

"I can be the advocate for them but those are only a few in my family that I'm journeying with and a few in the community. How about those others in the province who don't have anyone to talk to, anyone to express their frustration, their difficulty to navigate the system?"