To save the CHSLDs, in 2020, the Legault government went there with a bold and radical proposal. He jacked up the pay of orderlies and hired a slew of them.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
To solve the mental health crisis, it is the turn of Québec solidaire (QS) to propose a remedy quite similar to that which was administered by the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) to CHSLDs.
The first electoral commitment of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois’ party for 2022, announced on Saturday, is to increase the wages of psychologists in the public network and to hire a slew of them.
More specifically: QS promises them a 30% salary increase and wants to hire 900 more. In total, this would mean an injection of 280 million dollars into the network, which would also allow the hiring of 1000 other health professionals in the field of mental health.
The political party was inspired in this case by its new recruit, Mélissa Généreux, former director of Public Health in Estrie. In particular, it showed that the mental health of young people has deteriorated in a worrying way due to the pandemic.
Let’s be clear: we cannot accuse the Legault government of standing idly by in the face of the crisis Quebec is going through in terms of mental health.
But the most important question remains unanswered. Is that enough?
For now, the only honest answer is no.
Thus, the public waiting list for mental health services has not decreased over the past two years. On the contrary. It has climbed and now hovers around 19,000. It’s catastrophic.
A key measure put forward last year by the government to raise the bar was the equivalent of a sword cut in the water.
We had promised $25 million for the purchase of services from the private sector in order to unclog the public system. However, Radio-Canada recently revealed that only 15% of this amount was spent.
“Dissuasive administrative elements, which made the task more difficult”, would be part of the aspects which contributed to the disinterest of private psychologists, according to the president of the Order of Psychologists, Christine Grou, quoted in this report. Just like the time taken by Quebec to implement this initiative.
It is not a matter of bad will. It is rather, visibly, that the remedy was not developed.
Less than three months ago, the CAQ improved its proposal. She announced a mental health action plan, with an injection of 361 million over five years, an increase of 25% of the budget allocated to this sector.
Cheer ! On the other hand, we have already raised doubts as to whether this plan will make it possible to bail out the squad of psychologists in the public network, when its role is more important than ever.
It is that these psychologists receive much less than what their colleagues in the private sector are entitled to.
Figures from the Coalition of Psychologists of the Quebec Public Network (CPRPQ) show a major difference in treatment. In the private sector, a psychologist will receive at least $120 for each session, while in the public sector, the pay scale varies between $28.33 and $52.88 per hour.
Several officials of the CPRPQ underlined Monday in our pages that they also advocate a “30% salary catch-up” for psychologists in the public network. They pointed out that while 75% of graduates say they want to work with the public, in fact, only 25% integrate it.
Nearly 20,000 people who have to wait sometimes up to two years to obtain mental health follow-up is necessarily less spectacular than if all these Quebecers were waiting for a heart operation, for example.
It is, however, scandalous.
It will have to be repeated, over and over again, until we finally find in Quebec a remedy commensurate with the importance of this problem.