The president of the local chapter of psychiatric nurses has been disappointed - again.
"The budget has again let down all the people who currently utilize the services at Saskatchewan Hospital, each member of their family and each one of us living in this province," says Marion Palidwor, president of the Battlefords chapter of the Registered Psychiatric Nurses Association of Saskatchewan (RPNAS).
"Saskatchewan Hospital is a valuable provincial resource for persons with mental illness that requires a longer term stay for rehabilitation." said Palidwor after the provincial budget came down March 23.
"I realize the government has to make some choices about where to place their dollars, but each and every time mental health issues are overlooked."
The lack of action by the provincial government in committing capital dollars to the future of the province's only psychiatric rehabilitation facility is a particular sore spot with RPNAS.
"I had high hopes for this budget to include the money required to replace our aging and only provincial mental hospital."
Members of RPNAS were in Regina March 8 to attend the Saskatchewan Legislature along with other interested persons to lobby the government for changes that would heighten the awareness of issues facing people with mental challenges, mental illness, and developmental and intellectual differing abilities.
Those changes, said Palidwor, would create a more effective and comprehensive continuum of mental health services in Saskatchewan.
"We all sat in the visitors' gallery and observed the Opposition ask questions on our behalf to the current government about our issues," said Palidwor. "The RPNAS and other interested parties did not get any definitive answers from the minister of health."
She described Minister Don McMorris's answers as skirting around the issue.
"As an observer of this event, I found it to be exasperating," said Palidwor.
"What was mainly gleaned from this was that the building of the new Saskatchewan Hospital was happening, just not exactly when or in which century."
She said, "I realize that the cost for the new Saskatchewan Hospital will be huge, but the current government has told the citizens of Saskatchewan that they are millions of dollars in the black. It is unfortunate that the politicians feel they can play these sorts of games with the needs of mental health service users, some of our most vulnerable citizens."
Celeste Bridgeman, chairperson of the Family Council for Saskatchewan Hospital, recently implored Premier Brad Wall to move ahead with a new Saskatchewan Hospital and improve mental health care services. In a letter to the premier, she said, "There is a huge need for more adequate and appropriate services - that in itself would help to cut down on hospital stays therefore cutting down on costs of health care."
Bridgeman, whose brother is a resident at Saskatchewan Hospital, underscored the age of the hospital building and that it no longer meets the needs of its patients, the fact that 20 to 25 men and women share the same bathroom, that three or four people share a room, and that there is only one room designated for visiting in the entire hospital.
"The patients are living there because of depression and other mental illnesses. How can they hope to get better in such a dismal setting?"
She said the condition of the hospital is a prime example of the stigma around mental health.
"People with physical health issues would never be housed somewhere like this - it would be deemed unfit for living," she wrote. "So why is it okay to house people with mental illness in such a place?
She noted the government has considered helping to build a domed sports facility in Regina.
"Do you know how angry that makes people feel?" she wrote. "How can sports be more important?"
Bridgeman's letter elicited a response from McMorris saying, "The proposal developed by the Ministry of Health, Community Care Branch and Prairie North Regional Health Authority in regards to Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford, will be reviewed closely in the context of competing capital priorities and health care spending in our province."
The Saskatchewan Hospital was completed in 1914 at the cost of $500,000. A study commissioned in 2004 recommended a new facility be constructed to replace the aging structure. In 2009, the Ministry of Health announced it would provide Prairie North Health Region with $450,000 for further capital planning to clarify the scope of work needed to replace the hospital, and the estimated costs.
