P.E.I.'s chief mental health and addictions officer shifted to new role
Long-awaited strategy to be released soon, says government
A spokesperson for the P.E.I. Department of Health and Wellness says government is making final preparations before releasing its long-awaited mental health and addictions strategy to the public.
However, the person long-identified as the chief architect of that strategy has already moved to a different position.
Rhonda Matters was named the province's first-ever Chief Mental Health and Addictions Officer at a government media conference in November of 2013.
New role with youth support team
CBC News has learned Matters, a clinical psychologist, is now the lead on a support team helping Island youth with behavioural difficulties. According to government, she was transferred to a new position because her work developing a mental health and addictions strategy for the province was complete.
"The Chief Mental Health and Addictions office was created to develop a long-term mental health and addictions strategy," a spokesperson for the P.E.I. health department told CBC News in an email.
"When the strategy is finalized, government will also announce next steps for implementation and roles within that office."
It's not clear whether the position of chief mental health and addictions officer will be maintained now that the strategy is almost ready to be released.
'Issue is not going away'
Opposition health critic James Aylward said the issues with addictions that prompted government to create the position of chief mental health and addictions officer still exist.
"This issue is not going away … I'm still being inundated with calls and requests from families and individuals [who want] help trying to navigate the system," he said.
"If this was just a short-term fix … to make it look good in the public domain, this government sadly is sticking their head in the ground again and refusing to address a serious issue."
Aylward says if the mental health and addictions strategy is indeed complete, "then let's release it, let's study it … let Islanders look to see what the plan is."
Recommendations led to new facility
Matters provided a set of three interim recommendations in the fall of 2014, one of which led to the opening of a new youth recovery centre for addictions in Summerside.
A recommendation for a new youth mental health inpatient facility was scaled back to a day treatment centre after Health PEI said it couldn't develop the requested facility with the budget assigned by government.
In February 2016 Matters told the province's Standing Committee on Health and Wellness a draft copy of the mental health and addictions strategy had been delivered to government, with a final version of the strategy expected to be made public later in the year.