Posted on November 5, 2021
BCMJ: Building a program to support doctor and patient mental health.
Mental health conditions are the leading cause of disability in Canada, yet also among the most underfunded health care services. Counselling is a particularly unmet need.
In 2015, a small group of physicians in Victoria came together to develop a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) group program to offer equitable, accessible, and timely evidence-based mental health treatments for early intervention on a large scale.
Supporting patients when their symptoms require only minimal intervention not only reduces downstream costs, but also empowers patients to self-manage their symptoms.
Shared Care and the Victoria Division of Family Practice supported this team to collaboratively build a curriculum targeting primary care patients that capitalized on physician facilitators. As communities around BC became interested in launching similar initiatives, the Shared Care Committee selected the program for provincial spread. Read the story in the BCMJ.
