Mental health professionals are learning to expand treatment methods

Psychiatrists adopting community-based treatment making patient’s families hopeful

Kim Clark and her daughter, Koral, who lives with schizophrenia, in a family photo taken last Christmas. Koral showed up at her mother’s house to spend Christmas with her but was homeless at the time. Photo: contributed by Clark family

Sometimes Kim Clark walks the streets in downtown Halifax looking for her 25-year old daughter, Koral.

She wonders where her daughter is. If she's safe. If she's warm.

Koral, lives with schizophrenia, is on the street for a different reason - she is homeless.

Clark has heard that her daughter is somewhere in the Spring Garden Road-Robie Street area but, when she went looking for her last month on her birthday, she couldn't find her.

Koral has been in and out of hospitals, dealing with her mental illness for more than five years, giving Clark the opportunity to get to know the health system well.

Clark thinks the system is lacking some key components when it comes to treating patients living with mental illness.

She says it's a blanket system that follows a set of procedures, not always accommodating patients' individualized needs.

"The services are limited to the medical field," says Clark. "They are focusing on the medications and its great to have that balance for the medication aspect of it but we need a cohesive team together that supports them in their emotional stability, their family stability, just life skills in general to learn to re-integrate back into society."

The Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia reports that one in five people live with mental illness and not every person benefits from the same treatment.

Clark understands that changing the system to accommodate specific needs will require resources that aren't there. Instead, Clark recommends taking advantage of other community resources to help in the treatment and coping process.

"We have a wealth of resources in the community that can be accessed. There are other parents and family members that have life experiences living with people that cope with mental illnesses daily, ready and willing to become part of the team."

Dr. Nick Delva, head of psychiatry at Dalhousie University. agrees with the community-based treatment approach.

"The challenge really is how do you look after one-in-five people. Psychiatrists can't do it all but psychiatrists and mental health professionals can work with other people to provide the kind of systems that can deliver the care."

Delva says that the university and the department of psychiatry are taking steps to ensure that new psychiatrists are able to treat a wide array of patients needs while working together with the community.

"The curriculum includes many community projects," says Delva. There are community clinics in Halifax, Dartmouth, Cole Harbour, Bedford/Sackville and Windsor where psychiatry residents train with other community members and professionals to offer the best treatment available.

Delva looks forward to a new outlook on psychiatry, one that includes all aspects of the community and Dalhousie psychiatry students are getting first-class training on this new approach.

"The old model with the idea that the mental hospital is the centre of all care is being replaced by this restructured system. Care has to be delivered in the community ... it's good for the patients."

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