Mental health

It seems logical to me that if people have their ACEs, etcetera, diagnosed when very young, they should be better able to deal with their condition(s) through life. I have a condition I consider to be a perfect storm of 'train wrecks' — with which I greatly struggle(d) while unaware (until I was a half-century old) its component dysfunctions had official titles. I still cannot afford to have a formal diagnosis made on my condition, due to having to pay for a specialized shrink, in our (Canada's) “universal” health-care system.

Within our “universal” health-care system, there are important health treatments that are unaffordable thus universally inaccessible, except for those with generous health-insurance coverage and/or a lot of extra doe.

Furthermore, Canada is the only country with "universal" health-care coverage that fails to also cover medication. Not surprising, a late-2019 Angus Reid study found that, over the previous year, due to medication unaffordability, almost a quarter of Canadians decided against filling a prescription or having one renewed. Not only is medication less affordable, but other research has revealed that many low-income outpatients who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions end up back in the hospital system as a result, therefore costing far more for provincial and federal government health ministries than if the medication had been covered.

Also, I don't believe it's just coincidental that the only two health professions’ appointments for which Canadians are fully covered by the public plan are the two readily pharmaceutical-prescribing psychiatry and general practitioner health professions? Such non-Big-Pharma-benefiting health specialists as counsellors, therapists and naturopaths (etcetera) are not covered a red cent.

P.S. I tend to get agitated when I receive a strong suggestion from the media, however well-intentioned, to 'get therapy', as though anyone can access it, regardless of the $150-$200+ per hour they charge. For me, even worse is the fact that payment is for a product/transaction for which there’s only one party that is always a winner — the therapist’s bank account.

It seems logical to me that if people have their ACEs, etcetera, diagnosed when very young, they should be better able to deal with their condition(s) through life. I have a condition I consider to be a perfect storm of 'train wrecks' — with which I greatly struggle(d) while unaware (until I was a half-century old) its component dysfunctions had official titles. I still cannot afford to have a formal diagnosis made on my condition, due to having to pay for a specialized shrink, in our (Canada's) “universal” health-care system.

Within our “universal” health-care system, there are important health treatments that are unaffordable thus universally inaccessible, except for those with generous health-insurance coverage and/or a lot of extra doe.

Furthermore, Canada is the only country with "universal" health-care coverage that fails to also cover medication. Not surprising, a late-2019 Angus Reid study found that, over the previous year, due to medication unaffordability, almost a quarter of Canadians decided against filling a prescription or having one renewed. Not only is medication less affordable, but other research has revealed that many low-income outpatients who cannot afford to fill their prescriptions end up back in the hospital system as a result, therefore costing far more for provincial and federal government health ministries than if the medication had been covered.

Also, I don't believe it's just coincidental that the only two health professions’ appointments for which Canadians are fully covered by the public plan are the two readily pharmaceutical-prescribing psychiatry and general practitioner health professions? Such non-Big-Pharma-benefiting health specialists as counsellors, therapists and naturopaths (etcetera) are not covered a red cent.

P.S. I tend to get agitated when I receive a strong suggestion from the media, however well-intentioned, to 'get therapy', as though anyone can access it, regardless of the $150-$200+ per hour they charge. For me, even worse is the fact that payment is for a product/transaction for which there’s only one party that is always a winner — the therapist’s bank account.