Quebec psychiatrists are calling on the province’s next government to appoint a dedicated minister of mental health.
The call is part of six actions unveiled in the Quebec Association of Psychiatrists’ (AMPQ) Mental Health 2026 platform.
During a press conference at Montreal homeless resource Mission Old Brewery, Claire Gamache, president of the AMPQ, said psychiatrists are increasingly concerned about the state of mental health across the province, and key measures are needed to help prevent homelessness and suicide.
Gamache said mental health needs continue to grow across the province, with more people seeking help and struggling to access care.
She said hospitalizations for suicidal ideation among girls between 10 and 14 years old have tripled between 2010 and 2023.
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She added that pressures are increasing on a mental health-care system that is already “stressed and fragmented.”
The actions called for by the psychiatrists’ association would help expand alternative care options and bring mental health to the forefront of Quebec health-care policy, Gamache said.
Appointing a mental health minister, she said, would help ensure policy and direction survive changes in government every four years.
Leon Tourian, a psychiatrist with the McGill University Health Centre, said the minister of mental health should work alongside the health minister and social services minister to instill “coherence” in the health-care system.
“Right now we’re very fragmented,” he said. “And we want these systems to talk to each other.”
Currently, only five-and-a-half per cent of the province’s health budget is spent on mental health. The association of psychiatrists said it is not currently asking for a set number of dollars, but it is asking that the government be more “intentional” with its funding to help improve access to care throughout the community.
“We’ve come so far in destigmatizing mental health, but it’s still an issue, obviously,” Tourian said. “I think that’s why actually removing part of the health-care system from our hospitals and making them very much community-based will help shorten that distance between somebody who could actually help you and your issues that you have so you don’t actually enter the system.”
In addition to a dedicated minister and a community care model, the group is also calling for actions to prevent homelessness, strengthen suicide prevention, look after caregivers and create easier access to care.
Québec solidaire said it supports the position of the advocates and agrees with the need to focus on prevention and quicker access to care.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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