bcacc 2022 annual report
Britta West | President of the Board
Michael Radano | CEO
PRESIDENT & CEO MESSAGE
Data from Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) shows that the mental stability of Canadians has flatlined since the summer of 2022. As vaccinations became available and social distancing measures were eased, the mental health of Canadians showed some improvement, but new MHRC data shows Canadians’ mental health has plateaued, and in some cases, gotten worse.
Mental health-care systems have been struggling with a jump in demand since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Many Canadians looking for mental health services today are still faced with long wait times and a limited number of affordable options, they say, both of which can act as barriers to access.
According to data collected by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Canadians are still waiting weeks in order to access ongoing mental health counselling in their community. About 10 per cent of Canadians waited nearly four months.
Even though both the Federal and Provincial governments have started to allocate more funding with the B.C. Provincial Government adding $1 billion in new resources for mental health and substance use care over the next three years in its 2023 Budget, there are still accessibility challenges.
“There’s definitely a sense that we don’t have enough resources to respond to the need,” Margaret Eaton, national CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), told CTV News in an interview. “There’s need, and there’s this gap in being able to actually provide the service.”
In the past year, the BC Association of Clinical Counsellors (BCACC) has undertaken multiple initiatives to help address the gap mentioned by the CMHA.
It did so by:
1. Adding 700 new masters’ level Registered Clinical Counsellors (RCCs) to the profession now totaling 6,800 BCACC registrants;
2. Supporting 150,000 members of the public seeking mental health services through BCACC’s Find a Counsellor Tool;
3. Advocating for the addition of RCCs to more employee benefit plans to increase provision and lower the costs of mental health services, with both the BC Teachers’ Federation and Coke Canada having done so;
4. Working with the Vancouver Division of Family Practice to facilitate the referral of patients for mental health services within Vancouver and across the province;
5. Contributing to a joint BC Ministry of Mental Health & Addictions and BC Ministry of Health project to enhance the provision of publicly funded mental health services.