Manitoba is launching a Mental Health Roadmap that lays out a broad framework for the improvement of mental health and addiction recovery services.
A Pathway to Mental Health and Community Wellness: A Roadmap for Manitoba is a general guideline that spotlights sweeping areas that experts will keep in mind when proceeding with improvements.
“Manitobans have told us what kinds of systems and supports they need, and this roadmap and our investment will deliver on those expectations,” said Mental Health and Community Wellness Minister Sarah Guillemard.
“Our government’s investment, along with the direction set out by the roadmap, will make the system easier to navigate so that people will have access to high-quality services when and where they need them.”
The main themes listed are linked to improving accessibility, preventing chronic disease, and partnering with Indigenous-led healing services, among other initiatives.
The province is contributing $23.7 million to fund programs influenced by the Roadmap.
Details regarding specific investments will be updated as the province works with their partners in the system.
“Both before the pandemic and especially since the pandemic, the demand for child and adolescent mental health services has exceeded the existing resources,” said Dr. Laurence Y. Katz, medical director of child and adolescent mental health at Health Sciences Centre Winnipeg.
“This roadmap provides the guiding principles for moving the system toward a more accessible, equitable, culturally-sensitive and accountable child and adolescent mental health system with a focus on both prevention and treatment.”
The Roadmap will be followed over the course of five years as the government puts its framework into action.
In terms of what changes Manitobans can expect to see this year from the Roadmap’s principles, Minister Guillemard said the goal is to hear positive feedback from those who use the system and to see lower waitlists as more services become available.
“The majority of the funding this year is going to go to the core services,” she said.
“Enhancing those, growing those, making them more accessible to the growing needs we have in Manitoba.”
More updates regarding the mental health system revamp have yet to come.