MONTREAL – Megara Barnes suffers from severe anxiety and about a year ago her mother noticed she started cutting herself to cope. The 14-year-old was on a one-year waiting list for mental health services in the Lower Laurentians.
But earlier this week, after Global News aired the exclusive story about her situation, the local health services centre in Argenteuil agreed to give her an appointment sooner.
“People say she’s doing it for attention, but the day she comes to me with the pills, this isn’t something we need to figure out, it’s something we need to get help with,” said Carolynn Roberts, Megara’s mother.
A Montreal psychiatrist is now sounding the alarm about excessive wait times, limited access to mental health services and the growing trend of self-mutilation among the teenage population.
‘It’s unacceptable,” said Dr. Martin Gauthier, the Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the Montreal Children’s Hospital.
“Patients in distress should have access to a full psychiatric assessment within a month.”
Megara’s mother has been trying to get help for her daughter since January, when she was rushed to the Montreal Children Hospital’s emergency room after expressing suicidal thoughts. The hospital referred her to the local CSSS in Argenteuil, and weeks later she was placed on a one-year waiting list.
But after meeting with administrators at the CSSS on Tuesday, they agreed to move Megara up the priority list. She was told that she could see a psychiatrist sometime in July.
The current breakdown in access to mental health services may be rooted in a government plan adopted in 2005.
The provincial action plan was initially designed to improve access to services by making CLSCs the gateway to the mental health system. But according to experts, that plan has backfired on many levels.
“The emergency room in fact has been quite overwhelmed with the number of cases coming to our door because the system overall is not able to give proper access to children and teenagers,” said Dr. Gauthier.
According to the Quebec Association of Psychiatrists, there are fewer psychiatrists per capita in Quebec compared to the rest of Canada, especially in pediatrics. However, the association believes a lack of resources and funding from the government is more to blame than the shortage of specialists.
The action plan may have helped increase access in remote regions, but in Montreal at least, it seems to have done the exact opposite.
“The Montreal Children’s, we lost resources, they were transferred to the CLSC’s in order to build a team so we’re functioning with much smaller teams,” said Dr. Gauthier.
Fewer resources coupled with a growing number of complex cases are making diagnosis and treatment more difficult.
Close to half of Dr Gauthier’s patients self-mutilate and he believes the numbers are as high as one in six teenagers in the general population.
“This [self-mutilation] is a soothing gesture in most instances done at the time of high pressure high tension as a way to kind of release that tension.”
While he’s deeply disturbed by the growing trend, he feels it’s a reflection of our society’s tendency to use external stimulation to solve emotional problems.
While cutting is not necessarily a suicidal gesture, it is cause for concern and perhaps a sign of a more serious psychiatric disorder.
As for Megara’s mother, she wasn’t prepared to wait an entire year to find help for her daughter.
She tried finding a psychiatrist who practises privately, but there are only a handful in Quebec. She also put her daughter’s name on the waiting list at the Douglas Hospital.
Megara is more than aware of her mother’s countless efforts to get help.
“I think it’s now up to the hospital, it’s their turn to do something because my mom’s done all she can,” said the 14-year-old.
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