Mental Health – Bargaining Update
In the days leading up to mediation the Negotiating Team will continue to communicate with the membership on the progress we have managed to make at the bargaining table so far, what we have had to compromise on, and what we still hope to achieve. The Negotiating Team has worked hard to reduce the number of articles left to address in mediation.
The process of bargaining has been a long and unfortunately very often taken up in holding back changes proposed by the Employer that increased workload and altered metrics of evaluation. The Negotiating Team has worked diligently against the erosion of past practices and collegial governance. We have sought to protect teaching and research standards and principles. In some cases, our hardest fought battles have been in just maintaining the current rights and responsibilities of Carleton and CUASA members.
While CUASA staff and bargaining committees prepare for a possible lockout or strike, the Negotiating Team continues to prepare for mediation in the hope that the Employer will come to the table with fair and equitable deal.
Health Benefits – Ourselves, Our Families, Our Community.
The Canadian Mental Health Association reports that in any given year “1 in 5 people in Canada will personally experience a mental health problem or illness” and that, by “age 40, about 50% of the population will have or have had a mental illness.”
In the 2021-2024 Collective Agreement CUASA’s plan only covered the most expensive of mental health practitioners – college certified psychologists. The wait list to see a psychologist in Ottawa can be long and this has been further compounded by the requirement of a referral from a physician or nurse practitioner under the current plan. The Negotiating Team knows that a large number of our members don’t currently have a family physician and the situation isn’t improving – the Ontario College of Family Physicians predicts that 1 in 4 Ontarians (4.4 million people) won’t have a family physician by 2026.
CUASA has made several proposals to the Employer to improve access to mental health services including expanding covered service providers to counselors, psychotherapists, and/or social workers – a benefit already available to other campus workers. We have also proposed removing the requirement for annual referrals from a physician or nurse practitioner.
In negotiations the Employer made clear that they were willing to expand the list of approved mental health providers only if CUASA was willing to agree to a very low annual cap on all mental health services combined, a restriction the current collective agreement does not contain.
Under the proposed cap a member’s entire mental health coverage would equal fewer than 7 hours per year of treatment per person from a psychologist at standard rates. The Employer has further responded that it is impossible to remove the referral requirement with our current health insurance provider – a claim that is demonstrably untrue as it is the current norm for benefits plan to not require such referrals.
Our members have made clear that improved access to mental services is a top priority. At a time when society is doing a better job acknowledging the importance of mental health supports our Employer is putting up barriers to access.
What does access to better mental health services mean for us, our families and our community?
Mental health issues are the single largest cause of CUASA members using the Long-term Disability Plan. Moreover, mental health is directly affected by increased workload. Better and responsive mental health services for our members and their families can keep our members well and at work.
A cap on mental health benefits will seriously affect the health and well-being of our members and their families. Access to diagnosis, prescriptions, and treatment risk becoming less accessible for issues as varied neurodiversity (autism/ADHD/dyslexia etc.), mood and mental disorders (depression, anxiety, eating disorders, PTSD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders etc.), and individual and family counselling/therapy (marriage, grief, addiction etc.).
The Negotiating Team would like to thank all the members who have taken the time to contact us on the issue of health benefits since we started bargaining, but especially those who have reached out in the past week to affirm what we continue to argue at the table – our coverage must include better access to mental health care. Just as we would not accept restrictions on coverage for heart disease, diabetes or cancer, we cannot accept restrictions on life-saving mental health care. Our members deserve care and wellness – we won’t accept less.
