“We sympathize with anyone who loses a loved one to suicide. One suicide is one suicide too many. »
It is with these words that the office of the Minister for Health and Social Services responds to parents who have lost their child, fallen through the cracks, including The duty told the story on Tuesday.
“Our government is very sensitive to everything related to mental health, no government has taken this issue as seriously as ours and we are implementing several initiatives and programs specifically aimed at young people,” adds the press officer. Lambert Drainville in a written response.
The mental health portfolio increased by 37.8% during the last mandate of the CAQ government, he specifies. He refers to the National Suicide Prevention Strategy, which will allocate $65 million over five years to “better prevent suicidal thoughts”, and the Interdepartmental Mental Health Action Plan, with $1.15 billion in funding for “facilitate access to quality care and services”.
These initiatives include actions that primarily target young people, such as the hiring of interveners in schools and additional funding for training school personnel in this area. There are also plans to “enhance the youth mental health teams”.
Asked more specifically whether the Minister intended to request that statistics relating to the suicide of young people under the responsibility of the DPJ be kept, as has been demanded for more than 20 years, the press attaché Drainville referred The duty to the answers previously provided by the Ministry of Health and Social Services, namely that “the MSSS does not specifically monitor this data”.
On the side of Québec solidaire, the member for Sherbrooke, Christine Labrie, believes that the school environment “must do more” to help young people. “Right now, it’s very difficult and very long to get psychological support in a school,” she says. She also criticizes the waiting times for young people in a suicidal crisis. “The family who received a follow-up call for their daughter after she had already taken her own life is deeply disturbing. »
The duty was unable to get reactions from the Liberal Party and the Parti Québécois.