For Immediate Release
4 July, 2023
MHA Jordan Brown (Labrador West) is calling on government to release the final evaluation report from the Towards Recovery: The Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan report. Brown is also questioning the delay in the release after government announced they would released it in “the coming weeks” back in March.
“In March 2023, government announced that they would be publishing the final evaluation report for the Towards Recovery report, yet it has been over four months and we still have not seen it,” said Brown. “Government claims that all 54 recommendations are completed and implemented, but we are still waiting to see the final evaluation that was promised.”
Implementation of the recommendations from the Towards Recovery report was supposed to be finished in 2022, but due to the pandemic, the process was pushed back a year. The report was the culmination of the All Party Committee on Mental Health and Addictions that was the result a Private Member’s Motion by former MHA Gerry Rogers to review the gaps in mental illness and addictions services and treatment in our province.
Brown says that the work done in the Towards Recovery report is integral to creating a more accessible and less stigmatized approach to mental health care, but also points to how the world has changed since the implementation of this report.
“The implementation of these 54 recommendations from the report is just the start of creating safer and more accessible mental health supports,” said Brown. “The world has gone through a pandemic that created a lot of anxiety and isolation. We are also facing a cost-of-living crisis affecting so many in our province. On top of these 54 recommendations, we must focus on the social determinants of health which will also help ease the burden of healthcare professionals and give folks living with mental illness a foundation to heal.”
“We want to see the good work that the committee delivered be utilized,” said Brown. “There is still a lot to do, we need this final evaluation released so can we move forward with that work.”
-30-
For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca