Hi Allison,
Great to hear of your coalition, a few questions from a front liner who has interest in policy and how it gets operationalized. Essentially I am wondering if the coalition has linkages and better still alignments with higher levels of government like - municipalities and provincial departments.
While the mental health commission outlines strategic directions 4.1 -improving mental health a goal when working to enhance overall living conditions of people/health outcomes and 6.1 -Coordinate mental health policies across governments, across sectors it seems early days indeed for interministerial coordination. For example: A city like Ottawa, has social services - in some kind of devolution/budget cut scenario between the province and city-- which ends up cutting "theraputic bus passes" for people living in domiciliary hostels.
It actually gets quite complex, how disability is managed, but the plan is somehow to get Ministry of Health to pay for them via one of their supplemental programs (highly medicalized and proceedural). It seems that up the lines of government, it will be getting more fractured and siloed. We have a local social service department and provincial ministries saying transportation is a health issue, rather than an citizen access issue, or a financial issue when obviously it is highly inter-related.
Do you see hope or actual steps on your end that levels of government will be able to ensure continuity of access? I also wonder in our targeted specialization or focus on mental health we will lose the quiet benefits and I believe efficiency of universal access, but I suppose that is another topic.