Canadian government funding cuts have substantially reduced assistance for refugees with mental health problems in the western province of British Columbia.
Cuts roundly criticized
Last June, the government implemented cuts to its Interim Federal Health Program, which covers basic health care for refugees, refugee claimants and certain other non-citizens. The move was severely criticized by lawyers, religious organizations, doctors and refugee advocacy groups.
In British Columbia, the cuts have meant that two of the four groups offering mental health counselling to refugee have shut down their programs, and the full-time employees have been reduced from six to three.
Those three serve what is estimated to be 2,000 refugees coming to the province every year. Dylan Mazur of the Vancouver Association for Survivors of Torture calls the situation “a crisis in refugee mental health care.”
‘A duty to assist refugees’
Canada has a duty to assist refugees, says Chris Friesen of the Immigration Society Services of B.C. by virtue of the fact that it has invited them to come as part of a humanitarian agreement with the United Nations.
Friesen adds investment in mental health is crucial because the faster refugees can settle in, the faster they can start contributing to the province.
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