Nunavut government taking no action on mental health

I wish to express my concerns regarding the poor state of mental health and addiction treatments and programs in Nunavut.

I have practiced psychiatry in four Nunavut communities over the past 10 years. I have twice expressed my concerns and offered my assistance to two separate Nunavut ministers of health.

I did not even receive the courtesy of a reply.

I wish to first make it very clear that my issue is not with the many nurses, doctors, and caregivers who are trying their best to provide comprehensive care despite the lack of direction, and available services.

To give only one example: the Mental Health Act. This appears to be a copy of the Northwest Territories act and is very outdated and unworkable.

When I express my concerns, I am told “we are working on it.”

I recently approached the health minister in the NWT and he very quickly arranged for me to meet with him and his team on two occasions. They hope to revise their act by 2016.

Whether Nunavut will again copy the NWT act is unknown to me. In B.C. and other provinces in Canada, there are provisions to make patients with serious mental illness who are released from an inpatient psychiatric ward, to follow up treatment after discharge.

If they fail to comply to the terms — take medication, attend counselling, stop using drugs — they can be picked up by the RCMP and returned to hospital. This is similar to penalties for breach of probation in the criminal justice system.

In B.C. this part of the act is called extended leave, and insures that patients don’t relapse as soon as they leave the hospital.

Currently the lack of such a provision costs Nunavut hundreds of thousands of dollars for emergency medevacs and repeat hospitalizations, not to mention the damage to the patients themselves.

This is only one issue in mental health that needs repair. There are many others, but I fail to see the Nunavut government taking action.

Peter Uhlmann, MD
Powell River, B.C.

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