Ask Your Riding’s Candidates About Psychological Services

We’ve got an election coming up here in Canada, and the fine folks at the Canadian Psychological Association have put together a website on advocating for psychology during the campaigning.  Check it out!

They have a section on the site that lists questions you could ask the candidates in your riding about psychological services.  I’ve borrowed and listed them below:

1. Does your party platform contain anything related to the psychological health of Canadians?
2. Do you support parity between resources made available for treatment of psychological and physical health problems?
3. Do you support the specific inclusion of initiatives related to psychological health and addictions for 2014 when the federal-provincial health accord comes up for renewal?
4. What will your party do to improve access to psychological services in Canada and in this riding, particularly for middle and low income Canadians?  Less than one-third of persons with mental health problems receive needed services. Psychologists are the country’s largest, regulated group of health professionals who specialize in mental health. With cuts to the budgets to publicly funded service in hospitals and schools, psychologists increasingly work in private practice. Though psychologists in private practice are successfully self-employed, their services are not accessible to many Canadians who need them. They are not accessible because too many Canadians do not have the financial means or extended health insurance to pay for them.
5. There are significant recruitment and retention issues in government and other sectors when it comes to psychologists (e.g. Department of National Defense, Veterans Affairs, Correctional Services Canada). What will your party do to ensure an adequate supply of Canada’s mental health human resource meets the needs of Canadian who fall under the Federal Governments constitutional authority?
6. What will your party do to support individuals, families, the workplace and communities when it comes to psychological health and disorders?

Not sure who the candidates in your riding are?  Find out at the Elections Canada website.