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A registered psychotherapist in Guelph has launched a petition asking the province to have long-term supportive psychotherapy covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP).
Marinela Trickett, also clinical director of Trickett Psychotherapy, said her clinic receives daily calls from people who aren’t able to access long-term support.
“Currently, more people than not wait to reach a crisis point in terms of getting their mental health taken care of, in terms of reaching some support, and when that happens, they generally go to hospitals, to emergency rooms, and they do not get their needs met there,” Trickett told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo’s The Morning Edition host Craig Norris.
Psychotherapy is covered by OHIP only when a medical doctor or a psychiatrist, who is a medical doctor, delivers the process of psychotherapy.
This coverage excludes private practices with registered psychotherapists, and some people may not be covered by workplace benefits.
Receiving mental health treatment from a psychotherapist can cost over $100 a session out of pocket. Trickett said the average cost per individual session is $150 to $180.
With the help of Guelph MPP Mike Schreiner, Ontario’s Green Party leader, Trickett is bringing a petition to Queen’s Park in November that asks the province to:
Recognize psychotherapy and evidence-based mental health services as medically necessary.Expand publicly insured coverage to psychotherapy delivered by qualified regulated professionals.Establish a Provincial Mental Health Coverage Framework for equitable access.
The goal is to reach 5,000 signatures.
Ontario cites free therapy program
CBC News reached out to Ontario’s minister of health about why psychotherapy in private practice isn’t funded by OHIP. A spokesperson said they’ve launched the Ontario Structured Psychotherapy program (OSP), which offers free cognitive behavioural therapy for people aged 18 and over.
“Additionally, through the Roadmap to Wellness, we are investing $3.8 billion over 10 years to build a modern, world-class mental health and addictions system in every corner of the province,” the spokesperson said.
The funding supports 32 new Youth Wellness Hubs in Ontario for youth aged 12 to 25, and expands the Mobile Crisis Response Team and Rapid Access Addiction Medicine clinics.
Trickett said the OSP program only covers people who are suffering with anxiety and depression with “specific severity and is limited in number of sessions that are delivered.”
“Well, in Ontario, we are over 16 million people and not every single struggle has to do with anxiety and depression.”
According to a report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), in 2024, 41 per cent of adults in Canada with diagnosed mental health conditions were found to have their needs partially or completely unmet.
In Ontario, CIHI found, 40 per cent of males and 35 per cent of females had a mental health disorder with an unmet need for mental health care.