Improving access and capacity to support mental health and substance use service providers
Funding helps AU researcher address gaps in mental health and substance use health services
New research led by Athabasca University (AU) aims to improve access to mental health and substance health use services and providers by improving our understanding of strains on the system, including workforce capacity during times of crisis like the pandemic.
Dr. Kate Leslie, an associate professor in AU’s Faculty of Health Disciplines, is co-leading the national study with the Canadian Health Workforce Network and the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
Leslie said mental health and substance use health service providers are the backbone in responding to emerging mental health and substance use health needs. Unfortunately, these providers have been “woefully overlooked” in research and policy, she said. The COVID-19 pandemic showed that workforce capacity is a major concern in Canada.
“People are feeling more mental health and substance use health impacts from the pandemic and require services that we may not have the workforce to provide,” Leslie explained.
Funding to help explore workforce capacity
Thanks to funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the research team has been working on three Canada-wide studies to better understand mental health and substance use health workforce needs. The first study looked at workforce capacity to respond to increased demand for services during the pandemic.
They found an overall decrease in workforce capacity that coincided with increased demands for services. The impact of this strain varied across occupations, gender identities, and funding models.
Due to this, Leslie said segments of the workforce felt effects such as burnout and reported being dissatisfied at times with the level of support and funding available.
Mary Bartram, former director of policy with the Mental Health Commission of Canada and current director of research and evaluation with Stepped Care Solutions, has partnered as a co-investigator and principal knowledge user with Leslie. Bartram explained that another challenge is that, “people who are least likely to afford mental health services also have the hardest time accessing those services.”
Understanding that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and toxic supply crisis on the mental health and substance use health of the population are serious and long-lasting, their 2021-25 research program includes three linked sequential projects, all funded by CIHR.
Responding to increased need for services
“Addictions are even more stigmatized than mental health in this country. Toxic substances are also on the rise,” said Bartram.
As explained in the research team’s recently published article, one of the key inputs of health system responsiveness to growing mental health and substance use health needs is the availability and accessibility of qualified mental health and substance use health providers.
Leslie and Bartram explained that one major policy is addressing the divide between public and private funding for mental health and substance use health services. In Canada, many providers are either privately funded or only partially funded by public health systems.
How services are funded—whether through employer benefits, government-subsidized plans, or co-pay options—affects access.
This emphasizes the importance of developing policy options to inform a relevant, purposeful mental health and substance use health workforce strategy to be used across Canada.
“We want to make sure that we’re doing something that considers everyone—from peer support and addiction counselling to psychiatry and everything in between—that no one group is put above any other,” said Bartram.
Next steps
Currently focused on their third research project, Leslie explained that while developing policy options is one important element, they want to make sure the workforce is in place to provide equitable access.
“How can we plan so that this mental health and substance use health workforce is equitably distributed across the population?” she asked.
They continue to present their findings to knowledge users like government with the optimism of having their strategy and policy implemented at a pan-Canadian level.
“The fact that our work was announced in the House of Commons and it’s in the public domain that we’re doing this work with federal support, I think…will help mobilize our research,” said Leslie.
