Bill 15, which aims to reform the health system, offers a unique opportunity to recognize the contribution of the practice of psychiatrists outside hospitals, in order to better achieve the desired objective: improving the accessibility of health care for those in need. However, in its current version, it has an excessive tendency to focus on what happens within the walls of health establishments, to the detriment of local care.
We believe it is essential to shed light on the many treatments that are given outside of hospitals. In several cases, they constitute a known and documented way of reducing the burden placed on caregivers in health establishments, while allowing better accessibility of care for patients.
The idea that one of the solutions consists of forcing psychiatrists to practice exclusively in hospitals does not take into account the innovative solutions offered in the community, which allow increased access to quality care and which promote prevention. Currently, in Quebec, there are more than a hundred psychiatrists working within the community.
Some offer general psychiatry or child psychiatry services in offices, and allow their clients to access specialized care in an environment very different from that of hospitals. Others have developed highly effective, multidisciplinary, subspecialized clinics that offer services in addition to those offered in hospitals, notably autism and ADHD assessment clinics. Others support professionals in GMFs, psychological clinics, health clinics for students and community organizations.
This model is recommended by the WHO, and gives results significantly superior to those of the hospital-centric model of Quebec, which the reform project seems to want to consolidate.
Together, psychiatrists working in the community treat several thousand patients each year who are covered by health insurance. This frees up emergency and psychiatric services.
This is an improvement in access to care, which at the same time represents lower costs for taxpayers, with psychiatrists practicing outside hospitals themselves assuming administrative costs and, sometimes, the salaries of additional professionals, such as special educators or social workers.
The challenges facing our health network are of great magnitude, but the reform provides the opportunity to develop new solutions. Providing psychiatric services outside of hospitals is one of them. We are deeply convinced that the Minister has an important opportunity to consolidate the essential role of psychiatry in the community so that we all win.
* Also signed this letter:
Agata Czyzowicz / Alexandre Allard / Andréanne Tardif / Andrée Daigneault / Andrée-Ann Hounsell / Angelo Fallu / Annick Vincent / Bettina Choo / Catherine Paillé / Céline Lamy / Claude Blondeau / Daphné Rocha Marussi / Delphine Daigneault-Leclerc / Diana Awad / Eric A. Rabinovitch / Erik Robitaille / Florence Chanut / Geneviève Boutillier / Geneviève Roy / Hélène Bélanger / Hyehyun Paek / Isabel Filgueira / Isabelle Boivin / Isabelle Plante / Jean-François Rivest / Jean-Pierre Pépin / Jennifer Payne / Joanne Cyr / Johanne Martial / Laurence Dupont -Hébert / Marie-Pierre Chénard-Poirier / Michel Chicoine / Michele Larose / Nadia Daly / Nadine Trudeau / Paola Frare / Rimma Orenman / Rogerio Rossi / Sarah Landry / Sophie St-Hilaire / Stéphanie Brochu / Stéphanie Imbeault / Suzanne Caron / Sylvie Girard / Tin Ngo-Minh / Viet Tran / Wilfrid Reid / Zhun Ping Xue