Participants oppose province's decision to cancel their group therapy sessions

EveryTuesdayafternoon, 11 people from the Lower Sackville, N.S.,area get together at the Cobequid Health Centre to share their personal stories of anxiety and depression.

But last week, Gary Clark and the others who attend the 90-minute sessions found out the sessions havebeen cancelled, effectiveJuly 18.

"They're basically going to hang us out to dry," Clark said. "There's no other group like it in Nova Scotia."

'It's great support'

Clark saidhe suffers depression and anxiety and looks forward to getting together with the group each week to talk through his struggles with people who know what it feels like.

"I just feel there's such a stigma attached to mental health," he said. "That we can chat with people that have the same life issues, that we do on an ongoing basis it's great support."

Clark saidhe has a therapist lined for mid-summer and plans to keep up his exercise and work with his dogs.

Concern for others

Hesaidhe's worried about others in the group some of whom have been attending the session for four years who may not be as lucky as him.

"Some of these people have a serious mental illness and have a hard time getting out of bed every morning so it's something that they look forward every week to chat. There's some deep stuff we talk about as well," Clark said.

If it's a financial decision, Clark saidhe doesn't understand it.

"It'd be much cheaper for the province to have ten people [together] for an hour-and-a-half than seeing us all on a one-on-one basis."

Not enough people

The Nova Scotia Health Authority saidthe decision to cancel Cobequid'sinterpersonal process group therapy had nothing to do with finances. Rather, it was about "participation rates" and "outcome measures."

James MacLean, the program leader with community mental health and addictions,saidthe health authoritycontinuously monitors the success and participation of all the groups it offers.

"We will occasionally stop groups and refer clients on to other different types of groups or individual therapy," MacLean said.

The bottom line is there are simply fewer referrals coming to the health authority from family doctors directing their patients to this kind of group therapy, he said.

Programs being evaluated

"We'll meet with all the individuals," MacLean said. "And we'll determine a treatment plan moving forward with their involvement."

MacLean saidthis is the only group therapy program being cancelled right now in the province, but he saidall similar sessions are constantly being evaluated.

Typically a therapy group has about 20 to 25 participants "to make it as therapeutic as possible," he said.

Sometimes there are more but that's the benchmark, he said.

"I would say 11 [participants]is on the low side from a resource viewpoint."

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