Health committee  We work with a clientele—

Health committee  I would like to follow up on this document. I promise that I will read it. However, I hope that this includes private practitioners and couple and family therapists, because in Quebec, they aren't currently included.

Health committee  Do you mean psychotherapy? As a psychotherapist, I can tell you that it does.

Health committee  In the research that I've read over the years, yes. Definitely immigrant populations, racially diverse or any of the cultures that aren't necessarily at a high economic standard.... Poor neighbourhoods tend to increase that.

Health committee  It's interesting because also, statistically, when they reach adolescence, boys are more likely to have a higher rate of suicide, especially in Quebec. I think it's just perhaps how we socialize our girls and how we socialize our boys—the boys to be strong and the girls perhaps to....

Health committee  In this country, we have a heavy emphasis on diagnosis, as opposed to just assessment and evaluation. Counsellors and psychotherapists are able to assess. If we brought in that ability.... Guidance counsellors are also a part of the CCPA system. Perhaps if we can broaden that, then we won't have to wait for one psychologist per school board to make it to all the different schools.

Health committee  Mr. Garon, could you repeat the last part of your question so I understand?

Health committee  Yes, psychotherapy has been regulated in Quebec since 2012, which is very different from the rest of the provinces. It's regulated by professional order. So as a couple and family therapist, I'm a member of the Ordre des travailleurs sociaux et des thérapeutes conjugaux et familiaux du Québec, despite the fact that social workers are—

Health committee  We'll have to get an answer to you about that later.

Health committee  That's a good question, isn't it?

Health committee  That's for sure. We're currently part of Canada and have to follow its ways of doing things. We make our requests to the federal government because it's the one that deals with this throughout Canada. If we can get this sorted out at once, it would be better for all counsellors and psychotherapists in the country.

Health committee  I think the earlier we can intervene, going down the road, the less.... I work with kids and families as a couple and family therapist. If I can intervene when they're four, five and six.... I have clients who have had trauma at that age, as the Laval kids will have at this point....

Health committee  I can't give you the exact number, but I know that counsellors and psychotherapists nationally—and it differs from province to province—aren't necessarily all on par with the insurance companies that are out there. We are working with the the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association to try to get them to include psychotherapists as much as they include psychologists and social workers.

Health committee  I'm not a financial expert, and I don't think it would be my place to answer that question. All I would say is that I think those parties involved in getting access for kids, access to mental health and youth access to mental health.... That's the important part. I will let you guys work out how you do it.

Health committee  I think that in this day and age every penny counts with the increasing cost of food and all that. I think that 15%, which it is in my province of Quebec as well, will make a difference. I have clients phoning all the time asking for that. It's one piece of a larger picture that still needs to be looked at in terms of accessibility to mental health care for all Canadians on an equal basis.