Cutting costs and staff hours because of the lack of support from the provincial government has greatly affected the Mood Disorder Association of British Columbia (MDABC).
Catherine St. Denis, operations manager for six years at the non-profit MDABC, said that the non-profit organization experienced a funding cut as the government shifted focus from psychiatric rehabilitation to acute care services.
“We see the demand in our wait list to get into our psychiatric program, it takes 16 weeks to get into a psychiatric service, in our minds this is too much. We offer rapid access to psychiatry, and the demand is huge otherwise we wouldn’t have a wait list,” said St. Denis.
St. Denis explained that the organization experienced a major cut in their support group program. In the past, they rehabilitated patients by having them participate in daily activities such as delivering flowers to the psychiatric ward. She also mentioned that a Speaker’s Bureau program suffered as well, which was an initiative that brought speakers together as a means of coping.
From the social support perspective, the non-profit organization has experienced a cut, however, the psychiatry service remains unaffected.
The MDABC doesn’t have all its “eggs in one basket,” according to St. Denis, and she said that if the organization experienced further cuts, it would still be accommodating to its patients.
The MDABC is now more aware of their responsibilities as a non-profit organization because the government provides a great deal of their funding. St. Denis explained that the MDABC would be hooped if it weren’t for the help of sponsors and donors to help the organization grow, but she also said that it is important to find other ways to reach out.
St. Denis said that she believes mental illness to be invisible [to society] because, “we rely on belief, and we don’t trust people in society.” She said that the illness is like soft-tissue injuries, “It’s small but because you can’t see it it’s not treated and given importance.”
