Improvements are coming as the province continues to work through its merger of addictions and mental health treatment, said Health and Wellness Minister Gene Zwozdesky.
When the province eliminated the health regions in 2008, it also got rid of the separate boards that oversaw addictions and mental health. The province is still working on merging the two departments.
“Mental health is one of the most important management issues that we have in this province today and it has gone somewhat underserviced, in my opinion, over in the past number of years,” Zwozdesky said.
Improvements are coming in the form of a mental health campus at Villa Caritas in West Edmonton, which will take on one program being moved from Alberta Hospital Edmonton. The idea is to provide a continuum of care.
“If we get the treatment right and the care right, the community supports part right, I think you’ll see a huge impact on this,” Zwozdesky said.
When it comes to addiction, his department is “aggressively pursuing more programming” in schools, he said.
Zwozdesky said he wasn’t considering a return to separate boards for mental health or addictions but he’s hoping to get expertise on the Alberta Health Services board when he appoints five new members later this year.
Zwozdesky was responding to questions put forward at the annual general meeting of the Progressive Conservative Constituency Association for the riding of Spruce Grove-Sturgeon-St. Albert.
One of the questioners was Cardiff resident Susan Evans, who is a member of Core Lyncs, a group of service providers in Morinville and Legal that tries to match community needs with services.
“I’m hearing of a huge morale problem and I’m seeing an exodus at the grassroots level of workers,” Evans said.
In a later interview, Evans said that access to addictions services for youth is in a constant state of flux as a climate of instability and low morale has led to high turnover among counsellors.
“It is a constant struggle to access services for youth,” she said.
A youth addictions counsellor typically visits Morinville and Legal once a week but that person is on maternity leave and Alberta Health Services is recruiting a replacement, said Allan Aubry, director of addiction services for the Edmonton zone. In the meantime, residents can access emergency services in Edmonton, he said.
Cathy Pryce, the vice-president of addiction and mental health with AHS, said staff turnover in her area is consistent with other parts of health care.
“It’s a challenging time within health services in Alberta. We’re still very much in transition,” she said. “When you make changes, even if the goal of those changes is positive overall, it has some bumps.
“We know that there are some issues with morale across any aspect of AHS and I would say addictions is no different,” she added.
This spring’s provincial budget, which saw the province assume the AHS deficit along with a six per cent funding hike, hasn’t brought an increase in front-line workers, but recent grant announcement is prompting expansion, Pryce said.
At the moment there are 75 jobs posted and she’s confident the province will find people with the necessary skills.
Zwozdesky said one of the first things his ministry staff told him when he took over in January was that “morale in the system was at an all-time low.”
He plans to get everyone on the same page through relationship-building.
“I told them I need three to four months to get out and visit as many people as I can,” he said.
