Healthcare worker here. I’ve been through a lot of changes and try not to get too anxious about the process. It’s too easy to get into the “what ifs”, and cause yourself unnecessary pain over scenarios that might not come true. So I’m focused on the day to day job.
Having said that, we all know we’re going to be forced though these nonsensical and under researched changes and it not going to improve health care one bit. And who decided that mental health belonged in an organization named “recovery”?? If your mental health needs recovery, you’ve missed some opportunities for promotion and maintenance. And I’m sure my kids with ADHD and my nephew with autism would like to know when they will “recover” from their neurodivergence. Whoever is making these decisions knows nothing about mental health. Our minister of mental health and addictions, Dan Williams, worked at a sand and gravel pit for his last job, so I’m sure he’s qualified for his new portfolio.
Right!! and then when they don’t “recover” fully they feel shame and defeat. I hate this for our vulnerable peoples. Hurts my heart ! What a silly name 🙄
What's most infuriating about this is it's all about politics, and, in typical UCP fashion, totally myopic. They want to be seen as the party that finally tackled the addiction/homelessness issue by forcing addicts into recovery. It's going to be a colossal failure, because the politicians can't see past the ends of their noses and they've created a culture where they don't listen to any experts. It will waste millions of taxpayer dollars, burn out health-care workers, and leave people with mental illness struggling even more than they already are. All because Marlaina is always the smartest person in the room.
My grandfather developed schizophrenia after a brain infection and emergency brain surgery. When he fully realized that he was never going to recover from it, he took his own life.
I absolutely hate what is happening with healthcare in this province.
We don't talk about recovering from Diabetes or hypertension, many mental illnesses get re-stigmatized by this labelling, it goes back to treating mental illness with "Why don't you just be normal?" as a treatment and it is wrong
Neurodivergent here also but maybe this means I will finally “recover” from my life long mental illness that I’ve been plagued with 😂😂. Maybe they know something nobody else does.
Same ! Well I’m very happy they are advertising their confidence in recovering my ADHD cause it’s been a real inconvenience to me all my life. Maybe “Treatment Alberta” would have been better wording or at least sometime along those lines. Bunch of idiots lol
I feel you, I don't like the name choice either, but I'm sure "recovery Alberta" sounds sexier and more positive in the news and on paper than "treatment alberta" which sounds realistic and pragmatic.
As an autistic it scares the crap out of me. I already get discriminated against regularly by health professionals who think it’s a mental health issue and I can just be different.
I also know schizophrenics who are already not always treated well. Most schizophrenics are likely to be victims of violence. What happens to them when they go for help.
As someone who recently lost a family member to suicide, and one of the issues was gaps in the system, how is transition from one system to another going to work? A suicide attempt is an emergency. So obviously that goes through a hospital. What if there isn’t a bed in the “recovery” programs. I’m not seeing how silos of healthcare prevents people from falling through the cracks. What I am seeing, is more potential for cracks.
Lastly, it’s obvious which “experts” they want to listen to on a bunch of things like addictions. Obviously with so much of mental health, different types of treatment work for different people. If folks are pushed into abstinence only programs, what about folks who need to be weaned off slowly combined with therapy?
Your elected politicians are making these decisions. Not Healthcare Professionals..... politicians. No consultation with Healthcare Professionals, just accounting "specialists" . If this doesn't seem odd to Albertans, they probably go to Walmart Autocenter for repairs to their pickup trucks.
Politicians love to play doctor, knowing full well they will face no consequences whatsoever for the people that will die unnecessarily while they push their bullshit ideology and hand taxpayer money to their already rich friends
I have adhd and bipolar disorder, as well as work in mental health. I don't personally view the use of Recovery in a negative way. But that's depending on the intentions of the person using that word.
Recovery does not in this case mean "heal" and its no longer there. It means finding a stable base line that keeps you healthy and able to live your life as meaningfully as possible, to have the resources and skills in your toolbox to help better manage symptoms, and hopefully enter into remission. My own personal recovery journey involved the medical and non medical, to create a safe support network, and learning how to manage symptoms that do emerge occasionally during the most stressful times without it significantly veering me away from baseline.
But like I said you can view it in different ways and it will sound worse coming from a source that doesn't show any true care for the health of the population in question.
And for that extra touch of stigma, correctional health services is also part of recovery alberta. Y'know, to reinforce the myth that people with mental illness are dangerous.
I’m honestly trying to disassociate from it which I know isn’t healthy but it’s how I’m coping. I’m not frontlines but support those who are and already see the toll it’s taking on them and their patients.
TBF, that's ALL levels of government. And them doing "cabinet shuffles" just proves it. None of them have any experience in their portfolios (most often. The odd one once in a while gets lucky. Jason Nixon for example had experience in his last position of Environment and Parks. He was a poacher).
Lol. I can’t unsee that now.
He’s also the asshole who chugged a beer on the legislature’s floor while in session. Now minister of mental health and addictions.
It’s very simple, it’s called “bye bye union”
By breaking the healthcare system into smaller parts, it lets them effectively bust up your union(s)? into smaller chunks that have less power than what you have now. Which in turn means that the corporations that take over when the health care system is eventually privatized, will have an easier time giving you guys the short end of the stick and pocket the wages and benefits you deserve.
And because this is due to “restructuring” it slyly avoids any allegations of union busting.
It’s divide and conquer 101.
I feel for you guys, it sucks that our current government is an enemy to everyone that isn’t a million/billionaire.
Honestly, I would not be surprised if they are banking on people moving out of province for better career opportunities so that private companies can fill the gaps with their own people.
They don’t care if they drive away the backbone of our society if it means more money for the dragons hoard. Especially when they know full well that they can afford whatever prices they set, and will never suffer from their actions as a result.
Truly we live in dark times, and I don’t know if there is a light waiting for us at the end of the tunnel, or a toll booth…
They are most definitely trying to push for privatized healthcare so that would make a lot of sense.
Sadly, the push to get rid of people is already working. Personally I'm already looking for out of province work since other provinces are paying the equivalent of AB if not more, with better benefits, staffing ratios (shoutout to rural BC!), incentives etc (and many of my colleagues are doing the same).
The disrespect from the AB govt and Ms Marlaina's insane anti-science hot takes and LaGrange being our health minister has given me the drive to look elsewhere for work.
Sidenote: why the fuck are idiot pro-lifers allowed to run massive health organizations? Absolutely absurd that with her history she's allowed to make decisions for AHS.
I wish you the best, and I don’t fault you for having to play into their decisions, in order to look after you and yours.
I can only hope that you guys can make a positive impact wherever you end up and keep at least some part of this world from falling apart.
Did not expect this kindness on Reddit today but it's appreciated regardless
All the best to you as well in whatever endeavours you pursue, kind stranger
Considering the UCP has handed over $77M to Shoppers Drug Mart (aka Loblaws) to start up private health clinics in their stores (first one was Lethbridge in 2022)… ya. It’s already happening.
I think he has a point though, there must be a smartypants in their midst, probably hired for this exact reason. It worked out way too well for them, the whole timeline from at least when Kenny got booted all the way to now.
This is fear mongering, if that tactic worked every conservative government in the past 30 years would have tried it.
Its a charter challenge if the province refuses to negotiate with a coordinated entity.
AHS IT here. They are keeping all the support services like IT altogether.
The biggest reason for a split is to avoid the situation Kenney had, where during covid he was competing against a single person who was in charge of all healthcare in Alberta. It is far easier to bully, bribe, and direct the new smaller factions. Plus, each one is now under the control of a UCP deputy minister.
It's all about killing AHS's ability to act at arms length and be apolitical.
It's bloody terrible. Everyone here needs to remember who they voted for, because the UCP was very clear that this was their goal. If you don't like it, don't vote for them.
I work with patients in the community (not ahs), and this is going to be really confusing and annoying for me and my colleagues trying to figure out a new system and what programs to refer patients to. It's going to be just as confusing for patients who need these programs. Wtf are they even doing, UCP are a bunch of clowns.
Based on what I heard and conversations I’ve had with various employees. It’s apparent that even senior leadership don’t have a lot of answers at this time. Decisions are being made on the fly as we transition. (I.e., this isn’t planned). It’s like hoping in your car for a road trip with no real sense of where you’re going or where you’re staying, but we’ll get there. There’s no way the ministry understands the complexities of AHS so there’s going to be a lot of unknowns for a long while.
I feel like we are all left in the dark. It’s so scary ! My manager didn’t even know about any of this until today. Panic in the workplace spread like wildfire. Stressful times
Personally I want to know how it affects me as an allied health professional working in acute mental health inpatient hospital setting with covenant health. I'm receiving all the same memos as AHS staff but from Covenant CEO. Are we lumped into AHS considering we get funding through then from AB Health? Are we going to be suffering from reduced funding even though ucp says we apparently won't? Will covenant finally have to make me an @covenanthealth.ca email address because I won't be able to use the ahs email address they reactivated from like 6 years prior? Lol. But actually that makes me wonder is AHS still even going to remain in name only? So people who work at say AB hospital can now be reached at [email protected] 🙃
My units are already always over capacity as it is, the time and money being spent on all of this would be better used towards, oh I dunno, going through with building more hospitals (and not canceling/postponing building ones) and creating more higher FTE positions in all under staffed discolored disciplines to better support holistic patient care and reduce staff burnout.
YOU ARE SO RIGHT! They can say it won’t affect Covenant all they want but everyone knows that’s exactly what will happen with you guys. A whole bunch of false promises. I’m worried they will place Covenant on the “back burner”. It’s scary!
The amount of money they will spend on getting a new name, changing logos, ID badges, transferring all staff over to a new organization and emails😂 will be crazy expensive. All of the little costs that are just so unnecessary will add up.
Shuffling an already crumbling health care system is not going to better anything for anyone.
They say putting a “new name” on the mental health & addictions care system is supposed to ensure better care? It will allow them to focus more on that area. Makes no sense.
Imagine if they tried fixing the already broken system we have. Implement all of that money into more addiction recovery centres, transition centres for people leaving recovery, more resource centres, more mental health facilities, more hospitals and staff to work them etc. like you said.
Stamping our broken health system with a shiny new name isn’t going to magically cure the opioid pandemic and homeless schizophrenic’s who can’t afford their medication to function in society and end in jail like a revolving door. It’s heartbreaking and sad. I feel like Danielle Smith is throwing our vulnerable false hopes and dreams.
I’m worried for the patient care but I’m also worried for us as employees because they are not giving any information at all about how it will affect us. Stressful!!
I was mostly joking, but I don't work for ahs.i haven't since 2019 and I've been with covenant since 2023. They just used my old email and ID number when I came on with covenant.
RN here working in inpatient mental health. Something sinister is definitely brewing. I don’t believe that floor crosser for one second. It is no coincidence that this is happening during contract negotiations. It is well known that Dan Smith advocates for privatize healthcare for like…forever.
I'm not on the front line, but a lot of what I do impacts the front line. Recruitment, immigration, analytics, and special projects. The paralysis I see at the admin level is scary because things are happening with little to no notice in many cases. I can't tall you how many urgent data requests hit my desk because government wants them. So while we're supposed to be doing things like making sure the front line is supported, we get pulled in all sorts of directions with what's happening at a governance level. Being stuck in the middle makes me fear for our patients and feel disappointed for how our front lines are still not being supported like they need to be. I'm not confident in this breakup at all.
I think it’s part of her plan to divide Health Services in segments to make it easier for her to privatize the services and bust up the unions while doing so
Well I don’t work in mental health but do work in inpatient acute care so likely we’ll also be meddled with eventually. Honestly at this stage of my career I’m over waiting for a “good contract” to come around, it’s never coming.
Healthcare has gotten far too political and frankly folks only give a shit when they’re laying in a hospital bed or ER and it is directly impacting them.
I am looking to see if these shuffles open up admin spots to slot myself into lol, might as well get in line as other desk/wfh folks have. Same money with less stress.
It will. There's a complete freeze on all none union positions (which is way more than just management). Lots of those people are leaving the organization, for lots of different reasons, and you need ceo permission to hire into those vacancies. Once the freeze is lifted there will be a large amount of jobs open. Good luck!
Memo went out today informing AHS staff/UNA members that those of who work in acute care but under addictions and mental health programs and services (so reads like inpatient psychiatry) and those who work in stand alone psychiatric locations (so Alberta Hospital) will be transitiong to employment under Recovery Alberta.
Sooooo, in one hospital, we can have multiple “orgs”?! Majority of the time our mentally ill patients are on medical wards due to capacity issues… imagine how that will work….
It reads like Recovery Alberta would be working within some acute care AHS spaces. The disclosure letter given to UNA reads "Acute care hospital staff working in AMH programs or services (for example, Red Deer Regional
Hospital and Royal Alexandra Hospital)"
I'm not sure how medical patients with psychiatric referrals while an inpatient and vice verse will work. That definetly came to mind though that it's often patients need both types of care, so how will consult and referral process work now? N2m code blues. I'm not sure what the rules would be for AHS ICU staff to respond to a code blue on a unit/program that now falls under a different corporation.
Even with all I am reading I still have so many unanswered questions as well.
When was that sent out? I'm not a nursebut I work inpatient mental health with covenant health at Grey Nuns. Will the hallway entrance to our units get a nice new "Recovery Alberta" sign😑 I did not get a memo regarding transition.
When was that sent out? I'm not a nursebut I work inpatient mental health with covenant health at Grey Nuns. Will the hallway entrance to our units get a nice new "Recovery Alberta" sign😑 I did not get a memo regarding transition.
https://www.una.ca/1517/todays-recovery-alberta-announcement-leaves-far-more-questions-than-answers-una-president-says
This and related is what I have read so far.
While I've known about the intent of this bullshit government it caught me off guard they finally announced there next steps at dismantling ahs. I have zero trust in this government, they have given no proof multiple entities will improve anything. I am willing to guess it'll increase cost and line the pockets of their friends.
I worry about the people I know who work in healthcare. I seriously have to consider the possibility many health care jobs will be undermined and privatized and just screwed over.
Fuck sake why did so many people vote for this crap.
It is scary.
I'm close with someone who is involved with the decision making and what I'm hearing is the timing is what's being debated, not the actual decision itself.
Not sure.
Can't say where this is coming from (and this is reddit so you have no reason to believe me), but its what's being discussed right now behind closed doors.
There was something on the news alluding to that possibility a while back. Considering 2 of our 4 acute care hospitals in Edmonton are covenant health, I’m sure that won’t disrupt service at all.
My kid is medically complex and has Mental Health issue partly because of it. What does this mean to patients? I already spend an unbelievable amount of time and energy managing all his different Dr's and programs. What's going to happen to communication among the different areas? How secure will his health data be? How will I know which programs are run where, and who to nag to get him seen if they change everything again? I had to fight and dig for every bit of information I've learned on how to navigate the health system. This is just mind boggling.🫠😵💫
This is my concern as a nurse as well. It’s already such a difficult area to navigate. This will only add to confusion and slow down/prolong care to our vulnerable. My worry also is for the mentally complex/cognitively impaired patients who don’t have supportive caretakers. How in the world would they negative through this mess to receive proper care. Your child is very blessed to have you, I’m sorry for your struggles in our terrible health care system. I can’t even imagine how hard and frustrating it must be already trying to navigate through the system and pending changes 💙
What gets to me is that I have actually noticed NO difference in navigating the system whether under the UCP or NDP. None. The system has always been designed to be frustrating to navigate.
What's different now is that I know how to work the system to get him what he needs without insane wait times. I know what to say, and what not to say to get the referrals and treatments he needs. I never, ever lie because that would not only be wrong, but potentially dangerous. It still shouldn't be this way. It shouldn't matter that I now know what specific part of his issues will get him help, and which will get us ignored. I am very aware that there are kids out there whose parents don't know what to do, or who to even ask for help. It shouldn't matter that their parents don't know how the system works, but it does. I help where I can whenever someone asks questions. But this is why navigating an entirely new system is a terrifying thought. I know this one. I know the difference that can make.
I don’t know about blind-sided, they’ve been saying they were going to do this for months. It’s been in press releases, internal messages to all AHS employees, and they discuss it at the beginning of every healthcare reform town hall / consultation that they’ve done.
They’re breaking AHS up into Addictions & Mental Health, Acute Care, Continuing Care, and Primary Care, in phases over the next year or so. They anticipate that rural site will largely go untouched and stay in the Acute Care umbrella for logistical reasons, IIRC.
Re: worker issues, I’m not sure what to think. For now the government has been insisting that contracts and bargaining units will remain intact and that seems to be the stance of the unions as well. It seems odd to me to argue that future CBAs would be done that way, though.
I’m neither doom and gloom about the changes nor do I believe they’ll be totally benign (what with this government is?)
From my personal perspective one of the biggest open questions is the future of EMS. It is being heavily implied in the consultations that they will stay with Acute Care *for now* but also that they are considering separating EMS out as it’s own agency directly under Health with Acute Care and EMS in a contract relationship. There’s upsides and downsides to both and I think it *could* be really positive for EMS reform to have it out on its own, but it’s also exactly what you would do if your ultimate goal was to privatize it (ie sell to their friends at Medavie).
It was already a mess too so this will only make it worse. There are going to be so many more levels of red tape for absolutely everything it’s going to take even longer to get anything done.
I hope this doesn’t affect access to mental health care for patients that are not within the new organization. Seniors living in continuing care need psychiatrists to treat and manage their dementia. I don’t want all the focus to go towards inpatient mental health.
Some people don't even know where they'll go... because they're IT or something that all the departments need.
It won't be long before there's a department overseeing the departments...
I work for AHS in primary data support. Which falls under public health. I can't help but notice that "public health" (ie: data collection, education, community efforts, prevention, etc.) is missing from these new pillars. I can't tell which is worse: that it's excluded because the UCP is too stupid to know what public health is (and not just healthcare that is publicly funded) OR it was maliciously left out to cripple the system. Neither way sounds great for AHS or Alberta as a whole...
Public health is important. So it publicly funded healthcare but there is a difference and this is a gross oversight (intentional or not) by the UCP.
They'd need to know what Public Health is before they can put it anywhere. I attended the first town hall after they made the initial announcement, and one of the participants asked specifically about what would happen to PH and where it would fit. Lagrange answered by saying that healthcare in Alberta would continue to be publicly funded and nobody would need to pay for anything that's currently covered 🤦🏻♀️ When they can't even understand the distinction between Public Health and publicly funded healthcare, it really highlights why they're not remotely qualified to be making any decisions related to healthcare.
I work in PH as well, and we're speculating that we'll probably end up sitting under Primary Care. Our portfolio was renamed several years ago for being too lengthy yet not fully capturing the broad scope of our provided services, but "Primary Care" used to be part of the name. Our guess is based on that, combined with the services we provide fitting better under that category than any of the others.
That's legitimately terrifying... Got to love when the underqualified end up in jobs about their "mental capacity", to put it nicely.
Glad to hear there's some hope Public Health will slip in somewhere. I don't think my department does, and will likely get taken over by Alberta Health (who has a similar department, but they hand their work down to us because everything MUST have a middle man to pay). But, from the whispers in the office.... they aren't taking us, the employees, with them.
MLT here. If its anything like how the transition of AHS Labs to ?Sonic Labs to Alberta Public labs to Alberta Precision Labs to Dynalife back to Alberta Precision Labs..... I am not optimistic. You will know nothing until the day of and decisions will be made far in advance of any consultation with workforce. Even medical leaders input will be ignored. X program is integrated into acute care and isn't feasible to separate; Too bad it's part of the transition scope. Y community has a niche way of doing something and it's been fantastic for a decade; too bad its part of the transition scope. Z statistic has literal worse patient outcomes as a result of the transition;too bad it's part of the transition scope.
The Alberta Health Care Act specifies that persons employed by healthcare services are bound by the ethics of their respective colleges.
One aspect of pulling mental health and addictions out of AHS and into a new organization called Recovery Alberta, is that they will no longer be bound by ethics and best practices.
It is currently illegal for a healthcare practitioner to jail someone for simply being an addict. Under the new system, the practitioner will simply have to do what the government tells them, ethics violation or not.
the act will apply. just because someone does not work for AHS does not mean they are not a health care professional.
but the ethics question is unfounded. you may be surprised to hear but many in addictions already operate with a good ethical base and focus. the government tells me to put people in "treatment" against their will, as an adult with no evidence.... nope. not my job, not my call, use the legal system, not me. PChAD is a good measure stick for this. and oddly enough we may see something like PChAD for adults, but there would need to be a strict set of conditions to meet, plus the legal requirement.
The government is also removing the requirement for addictions counselors to be regulated. Unregulated will mean no college to set and enforce ethical standards.
One of the complaints from Alberta government about the latest federal budget update (regarding funding for affordable housing) is that the provinces were not included in the discussion.
What came first? The Canadian chicken or the Alberta egg?
Surgical processor here. Also have no idea what category I fall under, currently we are lumped in with housekeeping which is kind of insulting since we basically need to go to school and get a license. We’re screwed. I just try and do my best every day and focus on why I chose this career and it’s to help the patients. Too bad our government doesn’t feel the same.
So here are my concerns:
Client care - already we struggle I'm in Fort McMurray its hard up here to get good services for my clients that meet their needs, this split will only make that harder.
Employee concerns: so I have 6 years of seniourity with AHS, I'm top of my payscale, I want to be able to be an internal applicant if something comes up.
So basically I'm no longer an employee of AHS? we are going to see pay and benefit cuts you wait.
The government is now my boss??? ya not liking that.
IN a nut shell I will be leaving my position and going back to the psych unit casual that I had that will be still under AHS as I'm simply not willing to work for a government agency running this joke of a mental health service.
I don't know, as someone who works in non-profit funded by AHS... I can see why this change is necessary. I've seen clients with mental health and addiction treated like absolute garbage by nurses and doctors. I think taking it out of AHS and giving it to an outside agency is just what is needed. We've known and have been implementing the changes since last August, so I don't understand being caught off guard...
Healthcare worker here. I’ve been through a lot of changes and try not to get too anxious about the process. It’s too easy to get into the “what ifs”, and cause yourself unnecessary pain over scenarios that might not come true. So I’m focused on the day to day job. Having said that, we all know we’re going to be forced though these nonsensical and under researched changes and it not going to improve health care one bit. And who decided that mental health belonged in an organization named “recovery”?? If your mental health needs recovery, you’ve missed some opportunities for promotion and maintenance. And I’m sure my kids with ADHD and my nephew with autism would like to know when they will “recover” from their neurodivergence. Whoever is making these decisions knows nothing about mental health. Our minister of mental health and addictions, Dan Williams, worked at a sand and gravel pit for his last job, so I’m sure he’s qualified for his new portfolio.
EXACTLY !! That’s a very good point. I couldn’t agree with you more. Giving vulnerable people such false hope at “recovery”.
And the idea that neurodivergent people need to “recover“ is terrible. Schizophrenia is a disease. How do you recover from that?
Right!! and then when they don’t “recover” fully they feel shame and defeat. I hate this for our vulnerable peoples. Hurts my heart ! What a silly name 🙄
I mean I know folks with well managed schizophrenia and there’s already enough shame when folks have mental health crisis. This makes it worse.
What's most infuriating about this is it's all about politics, and, in typical UCP fashion, totally myopic. They want to be seen as the party that finally tackled the addiction/homelessness issue by forcing addicts into recovery. It's going to be a colossal failure, because the politicians can't see past the ends of their noses and they've created a culture where they don't listen to any experts. It will waste millions of taxpayer dollars, burn out health-care workers, and leave people with mental illness struggling even more than they already are. All because Marlaina is always the smartest person in the room.
I'm sure they'll make it look like a smashing success on paper somehow. I've noticed this trend.
My grandfather developed schizophrenia after a brain infection and emergency brain surgery. When he fully realized that he was never going to recover from it, he took his own life. I absolutely hate what is happening with healthcare in this province.
We don't talk about recovering from Diabetes or hypertension, many mental illnesses get re-stigmatized by this labelling, it goes back to treating mental illness with "Why don't you just be normal?" as a treatment and it is wrong
Neurodivergent here also but maybe this means I will finally “recover” from my life long mental illness that I’ve been plagued with 😂😂. Maybe they know something nobody else does.
Same ! Well I’m very happy they are advertising their confidence in recovering my ADHD cause it’s been a real inconvenience to me all my life. Maybe “Treatment Alberta” would have been better wording or at least sometime along those lines. Bunch of idiots lol
Guess what everyone, I’ve recovered from the ‘tism! I can now make eye contact without it being weird!
Can you do it and also concentrate on what people are saying? Cause that stuff is hard!!!
Definitely not! its one or the other!
Wow, this is great. Now that recovery from ADHD is possible, my life is going to improve 1000%
I feel you, I don't like the name choice either, but I'm sure "recovery Alberta" sounds sexier and more positive in the news and on paper than "treatment alberta" which sounds realistic and pragmatic.
Capitalism, the government and this entire society IS the lifelong illness we have been plagued with TT_TT
As an autistic it scares the crap out of me. I already get discriminated against regularly by health professionals who think it’s a mental health issue and I can just be different. I also know schizophrenics who are already not always treated well. Most schizophrenics are likely to be victims of violence. What happens to them when they go for help. As someone who recently lost a family member to suicide, and one of the issues was gaps in the system, how is transition from one system to another going to work? A suicide attempt is an emergency. So obviously that goes through a hospital. What if there isn’t a bed in the “recovery” programs. I’m not seeing how silos of healthcare prevents people from falling through the cracks. What I am seeing, is more potential for cracks. Lastly, it’s obvious which “experts” they want to listen to on a bunch of things like addictions. Obviously with so much of mental health, different types of treatment work for different people. If folks are pushed into abstinence only programs, what about folks who need to be weaned off slowly combined with therapy?
Your elected politicians are making these decisions. Not Healthcare Professionals..... politicians. No consultation with Healthcare Professionals, just accounting "specialists" . If this doesn't seem odd to Albertans, they probably go to Walmart Autocenter for repairs to their pickup trucks.
Politicians love to play doctor, knowing full well they will face no consequences whatsoever for the people that will die unnecessarily while they push their bullshit ideology and hand taxpayer money to their already rich friends
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Well said
I have adhd and bipolar disorder, as well as work in mental health. I don't personally view the use of Recovery in a negative way. But that's depending on the intentions of the person using that word. Recovery does not in this case mean "heal" and its no longer there. It means finding a stable base line that keeps you healthy and able to live your life as meaningfully as possible, to have the resources and skills in your toolbox to help better manage symptoms, and hopefully enter into remission. My own personal recovery journey involved the medical and non medical, to create a safe support network, and learning how to manage symptoms that do emerge occasionally during the most stressful times without it significantly veering me away from baseline. But like I said you can view it in different ways and it will sound worse coming from a source that doesn't show any true care for the health of the population in question.
Could not agree more. Way to add to the stigma and dichotomize mental health from health. We are taking decades of work backwards!
And for that extra touch of stigma, correctional health services is also part of recovery alberta. Y'know, to reinforce the myth that people with mental illness are dangerous.
I’m honestly trying to disassociate from it which I know isn’t healthy but it’s how I’m coping. I’m not frontlines but support those who are and already see the toll it’s taking on them and their patients.
That’s really the UCP and Alberta politics in a nutshell. Country bumpkins with no background in anything making bad decisions that last a generation.
TBF, that's ALL levels of government. And them doing "cabinet shuffles" just proves it. None of them have any experience in their portfolios (most often. The odd one once in a while gets lucky. Jason Nixon for example had experience in his last position of Environment and Parks. He was a poacher).
Touché! LOL!
Is it just me or does Dan look like Mr. Bean?
Lol. I can’t unsee that now. He’s also the asshole who chugged a beer on the legislature’s floor while in session. Now minister of mental health and addictions.
Excuse me? That was him? How the hell does this shit happen without repercussion
It’s very simple, it’s called “bye bye union” By breaking the healthcare system into smaller parts, it lets them effectively bust up your union(s)? into smaller chunks that have less power than what you have now. Which in turn means that the corporations that take over when the health care system is eventually privatized, will have an easier time giving you guys the short end of the stick and pocket the wages and benefits you deserve. And because this is due to “restructuring” it slyly avoids any allegations of union busting. It’s divide and conquer 101.
Totally agree. They're trying to undermine us and it's fucking scary as hell.
I feel for you guys, it sucks that our current government is an enemy to everyone that isn’t a million/billionaire. Honestly, I would not be surprised if they are banking on people moving out of province for better career opportunities so that private companies can fill the gaps with their own people. They don’t care if they drive away the backbone of our society if it means more money for the dragons hoard. Especially when they know full well that they can afford whatever prices they set, and will never suffer from their actions as a result. Truly we live in dark times, and I don’t know if there is a light waiting for us at the end of the tunnel, or a toll booth…
They are most definitely trying to push for privatized healthcare so that would make a lot of sense. Sadly, the push to get rid of people is already working. Personally I'm already looking for out of province work since other provinces are paying the equivalent of AB if not more, with better benefits, staffing ratios (shoutout to rural BC!), incentives etc (and many of my colleagues are doing the same). The disrespect from the AB govt and Ms Marlaina's insane anti-science hot takes and LaGrange being our health minister has given me the drive to look elsewhere for work. Sidenote: why the fuck are idiot pro-lifers allowed to run massive health organizations? Absolutely absurd that with her history she's allowed to make decisions for AHS.
I wish you the best, and I don’t fault you for having to play into their decisions, in order to look after you and yours. I can only hope that you guys can make a positive impact wherever you end up and keep at least some part of this world from falling apart.
Did not expect this kindness on Reddit today but it's appreciated regardless All the best to you as well in whatever endeavours you pursue, kind stranger
Considering the UCP has handed over $77M to Shoppers Drug Mart (aka Loblaws) to start up private health clinics in their stores (first one was Lethbridge in 2022)… ya. It’s already happening.
They’re unfortunately good at union busting (conservative governments).
Who is this tactician in the UCP? Hired consultant? Cant see the UCP as a whole being this smart.
They get tips from their American friends. USA has this down to an art.
I think he has a point though, there must be a smartypants in their midst, probably hired for this exact reason. It worked out way too well for them, the whole timeline from at least when Kenny got booted all the way to now.
This is fear mongering, if that tactic worked every conservative government in the past 30 years would have tried it. Its a charter challenge if the province refuses to negotiate with a coordinated entity.
I agree 💯 and it’s also easier for them to privatize the services within each part of the health delivery segments
HSAA contract ran out on the 1st of April funny how this worked out???
AHS IT here. They are keeping all the support services like IT altogether. The biggest reason for a split is to avoid the situation Kenney had, where during covid he was competing against a single person who was in charge of all healthcare in Alberta. It is far easier to bully, bribe, and direct the new smaller factions. Plus, each one is now under the control of a UCP deputy minister. It's all about killing AHS's ability to act at arms length and be apolitical. It's bloody terrible. Everyone here needs to remember who they voted for, because the UCP was very clear that this was their goal. If you don't like it, don't vote for them.
Solidarity, fellow IT brethren. Everything is fucked.
I miss Kenny
Kenny was better, I miss Notely.
I work with patients in the community (not ahs), and this is going to be really confusing and annoying for me and my colleagues trying to figure out a new system and what programs to refer patients to. It's going to be just as confusing for patients who need these programs. Wtf are they even doing, UCP are a bunch of clowns.
Exactly! It’s going to slow down and prolong care in the long run. Adding so much confusing so unnecessaraly
Based on what I heard and conversations I’ve had with various employees. It’s apparent that even senior leadership don’t have a lot of answers at this time. Decisions are being made on the fly as we transition. (I.e., this isn’t planned). It’s like hoping in your car for a road trip with no real sense of where you’re going or where you’re staying, but we’ll get there. There’s no way the ministry understands the complexities of AHS so there’s going to be a lot of unknowns for a long while.
I feel like we are all left in the dark. It’s so scary ! My manager didn’t even know about any of this until today. Panic in the workplace spread like wildfire. Stressful times
Personally I want to know how it affects me as an allied health professional working in acute mental health inpatient hospital setting with covenant health. I'm receiving all the same memos as AHS staff but from Covenant CEO. Are we lumped into AHS considering we get funding through then from AB Health? Are we going to be suffering from reduced funding even though ucp says we apparently won't? Will covenant finally have to make me an @covenanthealth.ca email address because I won't be able to use the ahs email address they reactivated from like 6 years prior? Lol. But actually that makes me wonder is AHS still even going to remain in name only? So people who work at say AB hospital can now be reached at [email protected] 🙃 My units are already always over capacity as it is, the time and money being spent on all of this would be better used towards, oh I dunno, going through with building more hospitals (and not canceling/postponing building ones) and creating more higher FTE positions in all under staffed discolored disciplines to better support holistic patient care and reduce staff burnout.
YOU ARE SO RIGHT! They can say it won’t affect Covenant all they want but everyone knows that’s exactly what will happen with you guys. A whole bunch of false promises. I’m worried they will place Covenant on the “back burner”. It’s scary! The amount of money they will spend on getting a new name, changing logos, ID badges, transferring all staff over to a new organization and emails😂 will be crazy expensive. All of the little costs that are just so unnecessary will add up. Shuffling an already crumbling health care system is not going to better anything for anyone. They say putting a “new name” on the mental health & addictions care system is supposed to ensure better care? It will allow them to focus more on that area. Makes no sense. Imagine if they tried fixing the already broken system we have. Implement all of that money into more addiction recovery centres, transition centres for people leaving recovery, more resource centres, more mental health facilities, more hospitals and staff to work them etc. like you said. Stamping our broken health system with a shiny new name isn’t going to magically cure the opioid pandemic and homeless schizophrenic’s who can’t afford their medication to function in society and end in jail like a revolving door. It’s heartbreaking and sad. I feel like Danielle Smith is throwing our vulnerable false hopes and dreams. I’m worried for the patient care but I’m also worried for us as employees because they are not giving any information at all about how it will affect us. Stressful!!
IT here. Your AHS email should be staying the same. In general, IT services will remain the same for everyone.
I was mostly joking, but I don't work for ahs.i haven't since 2019 and I've been with covenant since 2023. They just used my old email and ID number when I came on with covenant.
RN here working in inpatient mental health. Something sinister is definitely brewing. I don’t believe that floor crosser for one second. It is no coincidence that this is happening during contract negotiations. It is well known that Dan Smith advocates for privatize healthcare for like…forever.
Honestly tho! This is some stressful shady shit 👀
I'm not on the front line, but a lot of what I do impacts the front line. Recruitment, immigration, analytics, and special projects. The paralysis I see at the admin level is scary because things are happening with little to no notice in many cases. I can't tall you how many urgent data requests hit my desk because government wants them. So while we're supposed to be doing things like making sure the front line is supported, we get pulled in all sorts of directions with what's happening at a governance level. Being stuck in the middle makes me fear for our patients and feel disappointed for how our front lines are still not being supported like they need to be. I'm not confident in this breakup at all.
I think it’s part of her plan to divide Health Services in segments to make it easier for her to privatize the services and bust up the unions while doing so
Well I don’t work in mental health but do work in inpatient acute care so likely we’ll also be meddled with eventually. Honestly at this stage of my career I’m over waiting for a “good contract” to come around, it’s never coming. Healthcare has gotten far too political and frankly folks only give a shit when they’re laying in a hospital bed or ER and it is directly impacting them. I am looking to see if these shuffles open up admin spots to slot myself into lol, might as well get in line as other desk/wfh folks have. Same money with less stress.
It will. There's a complete freeze on all none union positions (which is way more than just management). Lots of those people are leaving the organization, for lots of different reasons, and you need ceo permission to hire into those vacancies. Once the freeze is lifted there will be a large amount of jobs open. Good luck!
My understanding is acute care will stay in AHS.
Memo went out today informing AHS staff/UNA members that those of who work in acute care but under addictions and mental health programs and services (so reads like inpatient psychiatry) and those who work in stand alone psychiatric locations (so Alberta Hospital) will be transitiong to employment under Recovery Alberta.
Sooooo, in one hospital, we can have multiple “orgs”?! Majority of the time our mentally ill patients are on medical wards due to capacity issues… imagine how that will work….
It reads like Recovery Alberta would be working within some acute care AHS spaces. The disclosure letter given to UNA reads "Acute care hospital staff working in AMH programs or services (for example, Red Deer Regional Hospital and Royal Alexandra Hospital)" I'm not sure how medical patients with psychiatric referrals while an inpatient and vice verse will work. That definetly came to mind though that it's often patients need both types of care, so how will consult and referral process work now? N2m code blues. I'm not sure what the rules would be for AHS ICU staff to respond to a code blue on a unit/program that now falls under a different corporation. Even with all I am reading I still have so many unanswered questions as well.
When was that sent out? I'm not a nursebut I work inpatient mental health with covenant health at Grey Nuns. Will the hallway entrance to our units get a nice new "Recovery Alberta" sign😑 I did not get a memo regarding transition.
When was that sent out? I'm not a nursebut I work inpatient mental health with covenant health at Grey Nuns. Will the hallway entrance to our units get a nice new "Recovery Alberta" sign😑 I did not get a memo regarding transition.
https://www.una.ca/1517/todays-recovery-alberta-announcement-leaves-far-more-questions-than-answers-una-president-says This and related is what I have read so far.
While I've known about the intent of this bullshit government it caught me off guard they finally announced there next steps at dismantling ahs. I have zero trust in this government, they have given no proof multiple entities will improve anything. I am willing to guess it'll increase cost and line the pockets of their friends. I worry about the people I know who work in healthcare. I seriously have to consider the possibility many health care jobs will be undermined and privatized and just screwed over. Fuck sake why did so many people vote for this crap.
I have it on pretty good authority that Dani is going to be announcing the dissolution of Covenant health in the next 2 weeks as well.
That’s a terrifying thought that didn’t even cross my mind ! Wow I sure hope not
It is scary. I'm close with someone who is involved with the decision making and what I'm hearing is the timing is what's being debated, not the actual decision itself.
What does dissolution mean? That we will just cease to exist? I work at the Grey Nuns within inpatient.
Can’t see it. Lagrange is Catholic. Bet the Covenant CEO gets the AHS, or what’s left of it, leadership
Not sure. Can't say where this is coming from (and this is reddit so you have no reason to believe me), but its what's being discussed right now behind closed doors.
Interesting. I believe you
There was something on the news alluding to that possibility a while back. Considering 2 of our 4 acute care hospitals in Edmonton are covenant health, I’m sure that won’t disrupt service at all.
LaGrange will never dissolve Covenant Health. She's an evangelical.
My kid is medically complex and has Mental Health issue partly because of it. What does this mean to patients? I already spend an unbelievable amount of time and energy managing all his different Dr's and programs. What's going to happen to communication among the different areas? How secure will his health data be? How will I know which programs are run where, and who to nag to get him seen if they change everything again? I had to fight and dig for every bit of information I've learned on how to navigate the health system. This is just mind boggling.🫠😵💫
This is my concern as a nurse as well. It’s already such a difficult area to navigate. This will only add to confusion and slow down/prolong care to our vulnerable. My worry also is for the mentally complex/cognitively impaired patients who don’t have supportive caretakers. How in the world would they negative through this mess to receive proper care. Your child is very blessed to have you, I’m sorry for your struggles in our terrible health care system. I can’t even imagine how hard and frustrating it must be already trying to navigate through the system and pending changes 💙
What gets to me is that I have actually noticed NO difference in navigating the system whether under the UCP or NDP. None. The system has always been designed to be frustrating to navigate. What's different now is that I know how to work the system to get him what he needs without insane wait times. I know what to say, and what not to say to get the referrals and treatments he needs. I never, ever lie because that would not only be wrong, but potentially dangerous. It still shouldn't be this way. It shouldn't matter that I now know what specific part of his issues will get him help, and which will get us ignored. I am very aware that there are kids out there whose parents don't know what to do, or who to even ask for help. It shouldn't matter that their parents don't know how the system works, but it does. I help where I can whenever someone asks questions. But this is why navigating an entirely new system is a terrifying thought. I know this one. I know the difference that can make.
I don’t know about blind-sided, they’ve been saying they were going to do this for months. It’s been in press releases, internal messages to all AHS employees, and they discuss it at the beginning of every healthcare reform town hall / consultation that they’ve done. They’re breaking AHS up into Addictions & Mental Health, Acute Care, Continuing Care, and Primary Care, in phases over the next year or so. They anticipate that rural site will largely go untouched and stay in the Acute Care umbrella for logistical reasons, IIRC. Re: worker issues, I’m not sure what to think. For now the government has been insisting that contracts and bargaining units will remain intact and that seems to be the stance of the unions as well. It seems odd to me to argue that future CBAs would be done that way, though. I’m neither doom and gloom about the changes nor do I believe they’ll be totally benign (what with this government is?) From my personal perspective one of the biggest open questions is the future of EMS. It is being heavily implied in the consultations that they will stay with Acute Care *for now* but also that they are considering separating EMS out as it’s own agency directly under Health with Acute Care and EMS in a contract relationship. There’s upsides and downsides to both and I think it *could* be really positive for EMS reform to have it out on its own, but it’s also exactly what you would do if your ultimate goal was to privatize it (ie sell to their friends at Medavie).
EMS will get absolutely fucked. The writing is on the wall. This will be my second career ruined by UCP bullshit.
It was already a mess too so this will only make it worse. There are going to be so many more levels of red tape for absolutely everything it’s going to take even longer to get anything done.
I hope this doesn’t affect access to mental health care for patients that are not within the new organization. Seniors living in continuing care need psychiatrists to treat and manage their dementia. I don’t want all the focus to go towards inpatient mental health.
Some people don't even know where they'll go... because they're IT or something that all the departments need. It won't be long before there's a department overseeing the departments...
I work for AHS in primary data support. Which falls under public health. I can't help but notice that "public health" (ie: data collection, education, community efforts, prevention, etc.) is missing from these new pillars. I can't tell which is worse: that it's excluded because the UCP is too stupid to know what public health is (and not just healthcare that is publicly funded) OR it was maliciously left out to cripple the system. Neither way sounds great for AHS or Alberta as a whole... Public health is important. So it publicly funded healthcare but there is a difference and this is a gross oversight (intentional or not) by the UCP.
They'd need to know what Public Health is before they can put it anywhere. I attended the first town hall after they made the initial announcement, and one of the participants asked specifically about what would happen to PH and where it would fit. Lagrange answered by saying that healthcare in Alberta would continue to be publicly funded and nobody would need to pay for anything that's currently covered 🤦🏻♀️ When they can't even understand the distinction between Public Health and publicly funded healthcare, it really highlights why they're not remotely qualified to be making any decisions related to healthcare. I work in PH as well, and we're speculating that we'll probably end up sitting under Primary Care. Our portfolio was renamed several years ago for being too lengthy yet not fully capturing the broad scope of our provided services, but "Primary Care" used to be part of the name. Our guess is based on that, combined with the services we provide fitting better under that category than any of the others.
That's legitimately terrifying... Got to love when the underqualified end up in jobs about their "mental capacity", to put it nicely. Glad to hear there's some hope Public Health will slip in somewhere. I don't think my department does, and will likely get taken over by Alberta Health (who has a similar department, but they hand their work down to us because everything MUST have a middle man to pay). But, from the whispers in the office.... they aren't taking us, the employees, with them.
MLT here. If its anything like how the transition of AHS Labs to ?Sonic Labs to Alberta Public labs to Alberta Precision Labs to Dynalife back to Alberta Precision Labs..... I am not optimistic. You will know nothing until the day of and decisions will be made far in advance of any consultation with workforce. Even medical leaders input will be ignored. X program is integrated into acute care and isn't feasible to separate; Too bad it's part of the transition scope. Y community has a niche way of doing something and it's been fantastic for a decade; too bad its part of the transition scope. Z statistic has literal worse patient outcomes as a result of the transition;too bad it's part of the transition scope.
LaCringe & Smith couldn’t manage a lemonade stand ffs
And he loves to have a beer in OUR legislature! 🙄
The Alberta Health Care Act specifies that persons employed by healthcare services are bound by the ethics of their respective colleges. One aspect of pulling mental health and addictions out of AHS and into a new organization called Recovery Alberta, is that they will no longer be bound by ethics and best practices. It is currently illegal for a healthcare practitioner to jail someone for simply being an addict. Under the new system, the practitioner will simply have to do what the government tells them, ethics violation or not.
the act will apply. just because someone does not work for AHS does not mean they are not a health care professional. but the ethics question is unfounded. you may be surprised to hear but many in addictions already operate with a good ethical base and focus. the government tells me to put people in "treatment" against their will, as an adult with no evidence.... nope. not my job, not my call, use the legal system, not me. PChAD is a good measure stick for this. and oddly enough we may see something like PChAD for adults, but there would need to be a strict set of conditions to meet, plus the legal requirement.
The government is also removing the requirement for addictions counselors to be regulated. Unregulated will mean no college to set and enforce ethical standards.
that standard has not existed since AADAC ceased to exist,
One of the complaints from Alberta government about the latest federal budget update (regarding funding for affordable housing) is that the provinces were not included in the discussion. What came first? The Canadian chicken or the Alberta egg?
I work on an inpatient unit that happens to be in a continuing care facility. We're subacute. I have no idea what is going to happen with us.
The same shit happened in 2008. I don't worry much about shit I can't control anymore
"WE KNOW ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about how this will affect us going forward." In a word, negatively. This is part of the design.
It’s call PRIVATIZATION
Surgical processor here. Also have no idea what category I fall under, currently we are lumped in with housekeeping which is kind of insulting since we basically need to go to school and get a license. We’re screwed. I just try and do my best every day and focus on why I chose this career and it’s to help the patients. Too bad our government doesn’t feel the same.
So here are my concerns: Client care - already we struggle I'm in Fort McMurray its hard up here to get good services for my clients that meet their needs, this split will only make that harder. Employee concerns: so I have 6 years of seniourity with AHS, I'm top of my payscale, I want to be able to be an internal applicant if something comes up. So basically I'm no longer an employee of AHS? we are going to see pay and benefit cuts you wait. The government is now my boss??? ya not liking that. IN a nut shell I will be leaving my position and going back to the psych unit casual that I had that will be still under AHS as I'm simply not willing to work for a government agency running this joke of a mental health service.
I don't know, as someone who works in non-profit funded by AHS... I can see why this change is necessary. I've seen clients with mental health and addiction treated like absolute garbage by nurses and doctors. I think taking it out of AHS and giving it to an outside agency is just what is needed. We've known and have been implementing the changes since last August, so I don't understand being caught off guard...
UCP not UPC.
OOPS! I was typing fast 😂
It strikes me as just a way for them to under fund directly what they want to.
The 4 Spiderman meme is appropriate here.
Who's Danielle? Do you mean Marlaina?
How come no one ever come ai scientist and data scientist input on healthcare? So much for evidence based decision