How "Social Prescribing" could lead to Universal Mental Health Care
Here in Canada we have universal health-care which isn't without it's challenges but most Canadians agree that we wouldn't want it either way. One detraction from our system though, is that often, significant medical procedures involve month long waiting lists. Some argue for a two-tiered system which would allow those who are financially capable to access care immediately. While this appears to be (and I believe actually is) an unfair advantage to the wealthy, some would argue that this lessens the load on the public system, reducing wait times overall. Win-win... supposedly. I know it's apples and oranges but we only need to look to our mental health care system, which is two-tiered, to evaluate how this approach might play out. It is my experience, that since there is such a large need for mental health related services, the public system is completely overloaded, even when a considerable portion of the population is accessing private counselling using their exte...