Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard (submitted)
Plenty of people ranging from health care professionals, mental health advocates and government officials are in Fredericton today talking about ways to deal with mental health concerns that many are calling a crisis.
There has been a recent spate of suicides in Saint John prompting calls for better access to mental health services, and that is part of the reason behind today’s gathering according to Social Development Minister Dorothy Shephard.
“This is not so much a consultation but it’s actually a forum whereby together as a group with subject matter experts we can determine an action that we can implement to improve the delivery of mental health services, said Shephard.
The Minister says people need to get the help they may need in a timely fashion.
Shephard said, “We want to look at having the information readily available to send people in a good direction so assessments are very important but they cant be so heavily weighted that people get frustrated waiting for them.”
The Minister also wants to see immediate steps taken to improve the services, not just in the short term, they want concrete results and goals for the long-term.
