BONNYVILLE – Mental health services for youth in the Bonnyville area are being impacted by a cut in funding.
Town of Bonnyville Coun. Brian McEvoy told council during their June 29 meeting that he, along with Mayor Gene Sobolewski, had attended a meeting with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Collaborative earlier in the month and learned that a drop in funding from the province would affect services being offered.
He told council that there’s a need for the local municipalities to support them in lobbying for money.
“They’re struggling. They’ve had funds cut and the commitment was made that we would be looking at what we could do to lobby and help them continue the valuable program.”
Sobolewski added, “The issue is that it’s critical. We’re almost at critical mass in terms of youth and mental health as we’re coming out of this pandemic and funds have been cut.”
When Lakeland This Week reached out to Alberta Health Services (AHS), senior communications advisor Diana Rinne stated, “AHS has not made any requests of the MD or Town of Bonnyville to advocate for more funding for youth mental health services.”
According to Rinne, the change in funding for Bonnyville was a result of Alberta Education changing its funding formula for the 2020/21 fiscal year.
“It redirected the Regional Collaborative Service Delivery (RCSD) funding previously allocated to AHS to individual public school authorities with complete flexibility in how the school authorities choose to use the funding.”
This resulted in the loss of a RCSD child and youth therapist in Bonnyville, Rinne stated. The position worked with the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Collaborative but was funded by AHS.
Sobolewski said the meeting was all about patient care, which would be impacted by the change in funding.
“We quickly pointed out to them that a lot of their own policies here in rural Alberta are detrimental to patient care in our responses and things like that. It’s more about money, somebody in the hallowed halls of Edmonton saves money and patient care and delivery in Bonnyville and rural Alberta pay the price.”
The Child and Adolescent Mental Health Collaborative established a weekly clinic that sees youth from six to 17-years-old that are struggling with ADHD, anxiety, and depression. There is also a mental health navigator who connects families with local health programs and works to enhance mental health services for children and adolescents in the Bonnyville area.
