The Glen Race case with its multiple tragedies has certainly galvanized public thinking about the lack of treatment options in Nova Scotia for people with mental health concerns.

The Race family in Windsor made a statement last week about the hope families had in 2005 with the passage of the Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment Act, which will provide for Community Treatment Orders, but not in time for that family.

The act is expected to be proclaimed early in July, approximately two years after it was passed. Health Minister Chris D'Entremont described that interval as routine for an act of its complexity, but Premier Rodney MacDonald blamed the NDP.

In reaction, NDP MLA Maureen MacDonald deflected the premier’s criticism, pointing to her party’s long-standing concern about inadequate resources for mental health services in the province. "We have seen a litany of problems," she said. "He is the premier of the province, they are in government. The mental health system has been in a serious crisis for many people requiring services, and their legislation really had nothing to do with any of those things."

‘Virtual beds’ not the answer

It was only months ago that we learned there are five "virtual beds" at Halifax-area psychiatric wards to deal with a bed shortage for patients with serious mental illnesses. That plan was developed after people with mental illnesses started showing up at emergency rooms needing hospitalization, but there was no place to put them.

When a "virtual bed" is required, a temporary bed is wheeled into a designated spot for the emergency care. Of the five virtual beds, two are in seclusion rooms where mental health patients are normally sent for a timeout. An emergency patient can expect to spend at least 12-18 hours there. Other virtual beds are in wards for patients with less acute mental illnesses. One is in a music room.

Health officials said the practice of admitting mental health patients to virtual beds is a temporary situation. But the situation was formalized to the point where a virtual bed protocol was created and revised in late December.

This system hardly sounds equipped to deal with mental health emergencies. In Kings County, the situation isn't a whole lot better.

In 2006, local police forces acknowledged that they were having to cope with more and more mental health issues. When law enforcement officers become involved, patients end up becoming criminalized.

The fact is individuals suffering from mental illnesses often stop taking their medications. They start to feel better and discontinue the pills or they can't bear the horrible side effects, like total exhaustion. There’s a sad Catch-22 quality to this oft-repeated scenario. In our crime report, there are usually five to 10 mental health calls every week. A woman screaming about suicide in a shopping mall parking lot and a disoriented man trespassing were two recently.

Situation is not unique

My phone rang one day and it was a neighbour calling about an individual who has been off his meds. I learned about his seeming obsession with this rural couple. There had been a number of visits from the RCMP and EHS, but no clear danger was determined. Yet two senior citizens are feeling frightened while trying to go about daily life. After Glen Race lost control, how could they feel safe?

Terry Hebb of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) branch in Kentville says this situation isn’t unique. "Going back 12 or 13 years, there's just no funding. It gets diverted away from mental health. There’s no support in a crisis."

Hebb said the CMHA gets financial aid in the form of staffing around employment, "yet we get calls for support and the money's not going there."

Hebb tells the tale of a man arrested in Kentville for bank robbery. He was taken into custody after his welfare cheque wasn't in his account as expected and he couldn't pay his rent, so the man became agitated and made demands of bank staff.

The shiretown is particularly prone to such incidents because patients congregate near a hospital where they think they can get help. "This issue is being swept under the carpet and it’s frustrating," Hebb said.

Canada’s prisons and homeless shelters have become the 'asylums' of the 21st century, according to Michael Kirby, chair of the newly formed Mental Health Commission of Canada. "This is intolerable in a country as rich as Canada," says Kirby. "Over the years, governments have rightly shut down the old psychiatric institutions, but they never fully put in place the necessary community-based services to replace the institutional hospital beds that had been eliminated."

Transforming mental health services is urgent, Kirby believes, given the decades the sector has been neglected and the real discrimination inflicted on people who experience mental health problems. It’s estimated today that one in five Canadians will experience a significant episode of mental illness over the course of their lifetime.

Yet it has been estimated that only one-third of the people who could benefit from professional consultation for mental health issues will actually get to see someone who could help them.