Last year, the Alberta government announced that it was dismantling the organization overseeing health delivery in the province: Alberta Health.
The government said that it planned to replace it with four organizations focused on specific areas: acute care, continuing care, primary care, and mental health and addiction.
Earlier this week, the government provided an update on the organization that will oversee mental health and addiction, which they plan to call “Recovery Alberta”.
The new organization will take over, unsurprisingly, all the mental health and addiction services that Alberta Health is currently delivering.
If all goes according to plan, Recovery Alberta should be up and running in under 3 months from now.
Related to this, the government plans to create more bureacracy through the establishment of what they have named the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence.
The new centre will apparently research best practices for recovery from other countries, analyze data, and make evidence-based recommendations for policy creators. The government plans to spend $5 million on establishing the centre.
The update says that Recovery Alberta will support the ministry of mental health and addiction’s mandate to prioritize “recovery-oriented mental health and addiction services to Albertans”.
The three main unions representing mental health and addiction workers in Alberta—United Nurses of Alberta, Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, and Health Sciences Association of Alberta—have responded to the new changes.
In a media release on her union’s website, UNA president Heather Smith said she’s concerned with seems to be an adhoc preparation process.
“Every Alberta Health Services nursing employee will be impacted directly or indirectly by this decision to hive off mental health and addiction services into a separate organization,” Smith said, “and it appears there was a serious lack of in-depth planning.”
On Tuesday, representatives from UNA met with senior managers from AHS as well as the AHS bargaining team (UNA is in the middle of negotiating a new collective agreement), and the UNA reps claimed they received few answers to the questions they had on the new changes.
According to the UNA, they received a letter from Lee McEwan, the executive director of labour relations for AHS. In it, McEwan listed 7 areas where UNA workers will be affected by the changeover:
- Standalone psychiatric facilities
- Acute care hospital staff working in Alberta mental health programs or services
- Virtual staff working on Alberta mental health programs or services such as the Virtual Opioid Dependency Program and Access Mental Health
- Community outpatient clinics and outreach programs
- Detox and residential treatment facilities
- Provincial Corrections facilities
- Corporate office settings
AUPE expressed similar concerns about the uncertainty of the change, saying in their own media release that the decision was made “with zero consultation” and that it “will create chaos”.
The union represents about 3,500 workers affected by the change and is worried that the decision is being rushed through, providing workers no time to consider how they will be affected by the change.
“It’s crystal clear from today’s announcement that the government feels it does not need to consult with front-line workers before doing what it already decided to do,” said Sandra Azocar, vice-president of AUPE.
“When you rush big systemic changes without considering the impact on staff and the Albertans who rely on these services, you run the risk of the system collapsing. People will die. Their lives will be on the government’s hands. These are ideologically driven decisions, not evidence-based decisions.”
According to the AUPE, changes are being made to mental health and addiction treatment before legislation is even introduced, let alone the necessary regulations are in place.
HSAA president, Mike Parker, and vice-president, Leanne Alfaro, expressed similar concern to the lack of consultation in a statement published to their website.
“We were shocked to hear the Premier and Minister of Mental Health and Addictions announcing these sweeping changes this morning,” they said. “When the plans to restructure health care were first announced, this government and AHS assured us that your union would be consulted and informed throughout the process.”
Except Parker and Alfaro claim that they were “not informed in advance of this signifcant change”.
HSAA representatives met with the incoming CEO of Recovery Alberta after the government presser announcing the changes. They came away from that discussion with “many unanswered questions” and that any substantive answers are dependent on what the new legislation will look like.
Parker and Alfaro are worried about the similarities between this change and the government’s decision to sell off lab testing to the private sector.
“This all feels far too similar to the changes that impacted your fellow HSAA members in laboratory services and we have grave concerns about how another transition will impact all of our members involved and the Albertans who rely on the health care you provide. ”
4 replies on “Alberta unions express concern about new mental health org”
its time to remove unions from health care unions create waist and excessive spending unionized workers do not care about doing a good job. good riddance
If unions create waste, why do we keep shutting down emergency departments in Alberta?
Ya your plan is perfect…because a non unionized healthcare worker making less money and working more hours (to fill the gap created by a mass exodus) is going to improve the system. Give your head a shake!
[…] In their complaint, they highlight that the Government of Alberta’s recent decision to move mental health practioners from Alberta Health Services to a new government entity called “Recovery Alberta”. […]