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Lisa Marie Barron

Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
NDP

Nanaimo—Ladysmith
British Columbia
Voting Attendance: 66%
Expenses Last Quarter: $144,270.93

Government Page

Context: House Hansard - 159 - Feb/13/23

Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

Feb/13/23 7:06:58 p.m.
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Re: Bill C-39

Madam Speaker, I am wholeheartedly in support of the delay of expanding MAID for those who have mental disorders as the sole underlying condition. We know that people deserve to have access to mental health supports, a home and food on the table. However, the Liberals have yet to transfer a dime of the mental health transfer to provinces and territories. To make matters worse, people do not have access to the basics to meet their basic needs. I am wondering if the member could share what he is hearing from constituents in his riding about the benefits they would have with access to affordable housing, a guaranteed livable basic income, and the mental health supports that they need.

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All Topics

Context: House Hansard - 129 - Nov/17/22

Ms. Lisa Marie Barron

Nov/17/22 6:51:02 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, provinces and territories are asking when they will see the mental health transfer and the increase to our health care transfer as well. The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, for example, sent an open letter along with 65 organizations from health and allied sectors indicating that the development of the standards of the mental health transfer should not be a reason to delay the establishment of the Canada mental health transfer. It is also calling for parity in legislation, so the federal government will value mental and physical health equitably, which is something that we do not currently see. Mental health stakeholders are calling for a target of at least 12% of health care spending to be directed toward mental health. There are so many asks right now, but the bottom line is that provinces and territories need more funding to adequately staff our health care, for both mental health and physical health. When will we see the money transferred—

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Context: House Hansard - 129 - Nov/17/22

Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

Nov/17/22 6:42:43 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I am happy to ask for further clarification on a question I brought up earlier on youth and children's access to mental health supports and the backlog of these supports as a result of Liberal inaction. This seems particularly timely as National Child Day here in Canada is coming up on November 20. I want to start by expressing that I am a parent of two, and many in this chamber are also parents. I worked directly with children and youth in our school systems. I worked directly with youth and families in addictions. I saw the implications for children and youth directly of a lack of appropriate, accessible, timely and adequate mental health supports for children and youth. We are talking about the accessibility and location specifically and having it somewhere nearby and having barrier-free access to mental health supports. The costs are a huge barrier. I am looking at free or appropriately priced mental health care, which should be free, and having it be appropriate. When it comes to availability and consistency, often youth struggle to build relationships with a service provider without that consistency, and of course, it should be culturally appropriate. The wait-lists and backlogs, as we all know, are often months and sometimes years long. These youth and children were not only not accessing the support in relation to the immediate symptoms they were experiencing, but also those symptoms were compounded because they were not getting access to the supports. The illnesses they were experiencing often increased. I saw youth whose medication was either under-prescribed, overprescribed or inappropriately prescribed due to a lack of access to care. When mental health supports are consistently unavailable and inappropriately funded, it reinforces the stigma attached to mental health supports. It reinforces the narrative that mental health supports are not important. We know that mental health and physical health are inextricably interconnected. We cannot disconnect one from the other. This is not only having a direct impact on youth and children, but it also has an impact on their loved ones. It has an impact on our capacity to support one another in the community. We need to have federal leadership today. The stats do not lie. In 2020, one-quarter of the hospitalizations across Canada for those five to 24 years of age were around mental health, yet we are still seeing inaction. There was $4.5 billion promised by the Liberal government over five years, and to date none of that has been delivered. This is money, much-needed support, that has been promised and committed that is not being used to support children and youth with mental health. Some $250 million from 2021-22 and $625 million from 2022-23 has not been allocated. I think of my colleague, the member for Courtenay—Alberni, who put forward Motion No. 67, pushing the government to establish the Canada mental health transfer. I see I am running close to my four minutes, so I will ask the government when it will be sending this much-needed mental health transfer to the provinces and territories.

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Context: House Hansard - 110 - Oct/7/22

Ms. Lisa Marie Barron (Nanaimo—Ladysmith, NDP)

Oct/7/22 12:08:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, poor mental health is a top threat to kids, with suicide being the leading cause of death for teens. However, this devastating reality can be changed with government action to improve access to mental health supports. Too many kids cannot access supports because of costs or because of wait-lists that are months and often years long. Every day that government delays action is another day kids do not get the help they need. When will the Liberals put kids first and follow through on their promises to fix mental health backlogs?

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Member of Parliament

Lisa Marie Barron