May 25th, 2022

NDP will protect students’ mental health

TORONTO – Andrea Horwath and the NDP will help post-secondary students care for their mental health with a free and easily accessible mental health care.

“University, college and trade school is a stressful time — it’s always a stressful time, full of change,” said Horwath. “Right now, a silent epidemic of mental health struggles is making life so much harder on students and young adults. Students are trying to cope with anxiety, stress, loss and grief, and getting used to being on campus after years of isolation. And students think there is no way they’ll ever be able to afford the kind of counselling or support they need — so they suffer in silence, thinking there’s no where to turn.

“But mental health care is health care, and we shouldn’t have to pay for it. Together, we can fix it — so in Ontario, students will always have someone to turn to, and they’ll get mental health care with their OHIP card, not a credit card.”

The NDP plan to help university students includes:

  • Expanding OHIP coverage to include universal basic mental health care, and introducing legislation that recognizes mental health is as important as physical health.
  • Developing province-wide, trauma-informed standards to respond to campus sexual violence and prevent a continued patchwork of different policies across different institutions.
  • Investing in mental health professionals and programs on post secondary campuses.
  • Creating Mental Health and Addictions Ontario, a new co-ordinating organization that will take the lead on identifying and publicly reporting on Ontarians’ mental health needs.

Doug Ford cut $2 billion from mental health and addictions services over his term in office, and he cut OSAP. Under the Liberals, wait times for mental health services grew, and people who needed care often didn’t get it.

“Together, we can stop the Conservative and Liberal cuts, fix mental health care, and give students their best chance at a healthy, happy future, regardless of the size of their bank accounts.”

Background

  • The Ontario NDP will expand OHIP coverage to include universal basic mental health care and remove barriers to accessing mental health care, relieve the economic costs of mental illness, and improve well-being for all Ontarians.
    • The NDP will publicly fund counselling and therapy services. There are approximately 500,000 Ontarians with mental health needs who do not have access to counselling and therapy services through an insurance plan.
    • The NDP will expand the existing Ontario Structured Psychotherapy Program and work with community-based providers to bring them into the publicly funded system and grow networks of interdisciplinary teams for mental health care. We will increase base budgets for Community Health Centres, Indigenous Primary Health Care Organizations, and other trusted community-based organizations by 8% to support operations and program delivery.
    • Horwath and the NDP will fund primary care doctors, nurses, psychotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers, and other regulated health professionals to be trained in a range of assessments and Cognitive Behavioural Therapies to increase the number of available, affordable, and culturally appropriate CBT practitioners. We will fund and support the growth of community governed family health teams to offer a continuum of care.
    • The NDP will promote local systems of care that will support a continuum of care between school and community supports. This will establish a coordinated approach to address children and youth mental health concerns and connect to family and social supports in the community as needed.
  • The Ontario NDP will establish minimum standards to respond to campus sexual violence and prevent a continued patchwork of different policies from different institutions. The Ontario NDP will develop province-wide, trauma-informed standards in consultation with experts, frontline workers, students, alumni, and survivors that respects people’s safety and dignity on campus.
  • To reduce the waitlist for youth mental health care to 30 days, the Ontario NDP will investment $130 million over the next three years to build intensive treatment and specialized consultation services, increase access to psychotherapy and counselling, family therapy and supports, and scale 24-hour crisis support services to ensure youth experiencing a crisis have an alternative to going to the emergency department.
  • The Ontario NDP will introduce legislation that recognizes mental health is as important as physical health and ensures that mental health services provided by qualified health care professionals and community health workers are insured through OHIP, whether they are provided in a hospital or community health centre.
  • Horwath and the NDP will create Mental Health and Addictions Ontario, a new co-ordinating organization that will take the lead on identifying and publicly reporting mental health needs, developing a comprehensive wait list for services, bring in province-wide mental health standards, creating a basket of services, and making sure that mental health and addiction programs are delivered across Ontario.
  • Horwath and the NDP will work towards establishing 24-hour civilian community mobile teams across the province to operate in partnership with Mobile Crisis Response Teams. Teams will respond to low-risk crisis situations and reduce the stigma and fear of seeking crisis support.
  • Horwath and the NDP will make sure all students graduate debt-free by converting loans to grants: The NDP will overhaul Ontario’s post-secondary education funding system and re-invest in the Ontario Student Assistance, with a focus on converting loans to grants and bursaries.
  • Horwath and the NDP retroactively wipe out student loan interest owed or paid to the province by any student or past student who still holds a provincial loan.

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