Family doctors have a short amount of time to spend with each patient. I think that if patients come in already with a sense of where the issues are and they have self-screened, that can facilitate the conversation with the family doctor. They can hone in on what types of resources are available and the referral process can be accelerated.
Before the pandemic, I was hoping to work with primary care physicians and pediatric offices to have the screeners available in the office. Then the pandemic hit, so we had to go online and we reached the families directly in their provinces.
Facilitating screening, where they can actually discuss the result right away with a health care provider, is helpful, because if they do a screening at home and they can't access their primary care physician, what happens? They go to the emergency department, and they may or may not need emergency care. I think that the timing of the screening and access to primary care and navigation support are essential.
We also need to support our family doctors, because they didn't train in psychiatry. Their being able to access advice and counselling on how to manage certain situations without having to refer to a psychiatrist and wait for six months is also useful. A referral system for physicians—