It's probably well known that, politically, wait times are a thing. The publishing of surgical wait times and ER wait times is something that has a tremendous amount of political power. This generates ideas to improve the situation from all members of politics.
In the same way, I think there could be standards that would really.... When a child is in trouble, how long should it take for them to see a mental health professional? That's an example. The publishing and the encouragement of shorter wait times is something that could be not only a national standard but something that is well known. It relies on advocacy groups to talk about it. In Ontario, I think about three years ago, they published that some kids were waiting more than two years for treatment. We need these standards.
They should be based on tiers of care. When things are early, it doesn't require a tertiary emergency psychiatrist like me. There are many professionals in many areas who have excellent training and all sorts of therapies, but when they need help, they should be able to access help. When that group needs help, they should have access all the way up to the tertiary services that are the rarest and most expensive.
Scaling these in a way that works with tiers of service would greatly reduce wait times. I spend time assessing children who don't need to see me. Establishing standards of how to access care in a timely way would be really helpful.