The lack of mental health resources in Athabasca and beyond are taking a tangible toll on our communities.
For decades, the issues of mental health have gone unheeded as either unimportant or nonexistent. In many ways, only recently have governments tried to address the folly of that position. But much more needs to be done, especially in rural areas.
Visiting any rural court provides ample evidence of the toll that not addressing mental health is having on our legal system. At the Athabasca Provincial Court session on Nov. 6, all four cases that had guilty pleas – ranging from drug possession to arson – had mental health issues noted as factors. This is far from exceptional, as people struggling with mental health issues, including drug addiction, regularly and repeatedly end up before our court systems.
The costs associated with not addressing this issue have mounted over the time, in terms of the resources of police officers, lawyers and judges. The physical cost when more troubled individuals commit property crime is also substantial. The court system also often fails to prevent recidivism with those struggling with mental health, who often come cyclically before the courts.
This is a problem that exists all across the country but its impact is perhaps more pronounced in rural areas. Mental health resources are substantially less available than in urban centres. This reality means mental health problems can often go unaddressed with workers stretched thin. The issue culminates in the courtroom and on the town’s streets.
Of course, not everyone dealing with mental health is criminal. Many if not most of us have dealt with a mental health issue at one point or another in our lives. Mental health issues can give a massive blow to our happiness and quality of life. Its pervasive impact on these things alone make it a problem worth addressing with more resources than we do.
It is costing our rural communities thousands, if not millions of dollars over time. Our governments would be significantly better off directing funding to mental health in rural communities, for all ages, to reduce crime rates and the costs associated.
In the long term, funding better mental health care in rural areas would prove less costly than not. Both in terms of the dollars but also in lives healed and saved.
