Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME file photo)

By Libby Giesbrecht/ CJME News

No active mental health, addictions child psychologists redeployed in province

Nov 1, 2021 | 5:16 PM

During a technical briefing Friday, Saskatchewan Health Authority CEO Scott Livingstone said child psychologists and several other staff have been redeployed during the fourth wave of COVID-19 to work as contact tracers.

That included some from early childhood development programs.

In an email from the province after the briefing, government media relations manager Matthew Glover clarified that no child psychologists “who actively worked in mental health and addictions services were redeployed.”

Livingstone said the redeployments were a result of the province’s fourth wave “strategy” and “unprecedented impacts on the health-care system.”

“In this situation, child psychologists who worked in areas outside of dedicated mental health and addictions services were redeployed into contact tracing as their area was slowed and other staff redeployed,” Glover wrote. “These staff are immediately being returned to their service areas.”

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Glover added the SHA has “made efforts to preserve mental health and addictions services as much as possible, including youth mental health services.” He said the province is working with the SHA to keep these services accessible.

According to Livingstone, the slowdown and the services being provided are regularly evaluated and teams are determining when it is safe to restart various services.

As case numbers and hospitalizations lower in the province, staff are expected to be redeployed back to their regular duties soon.

NDP frustrated long before patient transfers

On Oct. 14, less than a week before the first six patients were transferred to Ontario from Saskatchewan’s strained ICUs, NDP Education Critic Carla Beck commented on the province’s plan to initially redeploy child psychologists and other trained child health-care workers.

“We’re in a position in this province right now where we’re pulling specialists — who work with children, who provide crucial therapies to children — off the job to do contact tracing because the premier won’t pick up the phone to ask for help,” Beck said.

She said she was confused that specialized medical staff were being enlisted to work as contact tracers when they were needed in more critical positions.

“The families are saying this loud and clear, how important this therapy is,” Beck said. “The professionals are saying how important this therapy is to children.”