The take home message is that Canada, like many other countries, is inadequately prepared to deal with the intersection between mental health and correctional services. Mental health in Canada is a patchwork of institutions and programs that simply struggle year-to-year to find adequate resources to offer the kind of services they are expected to provide. It's
estimated that roughly a third of those with mental illness in Canada receive adequate treatment. A large percentage of the treatment comes from their general practitioners, which isn't optimal for a healthcare system that is already strained, nor for the patient who would benefit better from focused treatment options like counseling or psychiatric inpatient experience.
The sort of approach we've seen recently from Ottawa, with the tough on crime agenda, certainly isn't adequate to even address these issues. In fact the latest legislation further burdened the provinces with respect to resources, and will mean more inmates who are not receiving proper treatment. It's astonishing really, because it's not an issue that affects the person alone. Untreated mental illness is a risk to others around them, including the other inmates, as well as correctional staff.
