Continual struggle

A letter to the editor published in today's The Chronicle Herald:

Re: "A passionate call for mental health services" (Aug. 23).

It is disheartening to see the continual struggle for the mind and brain to be given equal treatment to the heart, cancer and pancreas. This state risks institutionalizing the stigma described in Michael Kirby’s Senate report "Out of the Shadows at Last."

A wait of six to 12 months for a child or youth feels like a lifetime. Lest children’s mental health service is kept as the "orphan’s orphan," we would like to note a few points.

Most mental disorders in adults begin in children and youth. Parity of resources, clinicians and research funding for child and youth mental health is even more dramatically unbalanced than for adults. Many of the problems in childhood have long-term consequences for adult functioning and multiple service problems and needs. In a knowledge-based economy, without helping all children and youth reach their optimal mental health, we sacrifice the economic health of our society.

We applaud Deputy Health Minister Cheryl Doiron’s alert to society that we must all attend to mental health, and in particular we support the need to bring services for the minds and brains of children and youth up to par with other systems and organs of the body.

Margaret Steele, MD, President,

Wade Junek, MD, President-Elect,

Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry