I know that there's currently debate in Nova Scotia around how to make that work, because our government is strongly looking at a way of billing private practitioners. On the difference between clients who have private health insurance, who I can direct bill, compared with the people who have to pay up front and then get reimbursed or are paying out of pocket, the ability to not get stressed over the finances of this is really important. From a practice point of view, taking that financial stress off the client and the family is really important.
For us as practitioners, there's nothing more heartbreaking than having to turn someone away because you don't have space in your schedule, or you already have five people who you are seeing pro bono and you just physically or financially can't continue to do that. It's heartbreaking. We talk about burnout, and those are the types of things that burn out psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers. It's not the work when we're helping. It's when we can't provide what we know should be there.