Dr. Lesley Lutes is co-author of a new review in Canadian Psychology on integrating psychologists into Canadian primary care.
As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to host the inaugural Canada Investment Summit in Toronto this September, a new review co-led by researchers at UBC argues that the country is leaving one of its largest economic and health-care system opportunities untouched: the integration of psychological care into primary care.
Published in Canadian Psychology, the review synthesizes three decades of national and international evidence to make the case that Canada already has the workforce and the science to close one of the widest gaps in its health-care system, and that the missing piece is policy.
“One in two primary-care visits in this country now involves a mental-health concern, and family doctors themselves say they don’t have the training, the time or the team to handle that load,” says Dr. Michelle St. Pierre, a postdoctoral fellow in UBC Okanagan’s Department of Psychology and corresponding author on the review. “The model that works—integrated primary care—has been studied for decades. We just haven’t built it here at scale.”
The review also documents the cost of the status quo.
Read the full story here: UBC Okanagan News