Nova Scotia’s opposition party is calling for more to be done to help with mental health issues as the pandemic has revealed a troubling trend.
The province’s mental health crisis line received 35 percent more calls last month compared to the same month in 2019.
“We have a mental health issue on our hands that has significantly worsened due to COVID-19,” says John Lohr, Progressive Conservative critic for mental health and addictions. “The rise in need for mental health support must be addressed by the government or we risk many people suffering during these times of uncertainty and beyond. If our government doesn’t respond to the imminent mental health matter, Nova Scotians will suffer.”
Progressive Conservative leader Tim Houston says too often people call for mental health support and are met with long wait time. He proposes setting up someone whose main priority is solving these issues, “The PC’s have been pushing for the government to establish a mental health and addiction services minister whose sole focus is working on those issues and that way there is more accountability as well.”
They would like to see changes quickly as they fear if a second wave of COVID-19 hits in the fall it will only further exacerbate these issues.
Experts predict there could be a long term increase in the number of individuals impacted by mental health issues. According to the Nova Scotia mental-health crisis line, they received 2,485 calls last month.
