subbie writes:
(I readily acknowledge my lack of information specifically related to the Canadian system so would welcome a correction from someone with more information than me.)
I'm not sure about how it works in relation to the criminal justice system, but mental health care in Canada in general is pretty abismal.
It may be free to go to the hospital to get a cast for a broken arm, but it's certainly not free to see a therapist for serious mental health issues.
The ones who give out mental health drugs (psycologists?) are free to see, but you only get to see them for as long as it takes to pick a drug and write a prescription.
Therapy and work with social workers is strongly recommended by all the doctors, but generally not feasible for anything serious enough to require long-term help.
Therapists/social workers, on average, will charge about $150-200 an hour.
A good health package will cover $500
per year. Obviously, it doesn't go very far.
Even seeing a therapist lightly on a regular basis (one hour session per week), is more costly than the average mortgage.
There are some free seminars available, but they are limited (2-4 weeks long, and that's it..).
If you live in a big city (like Toronto), the doctors can be very accomodating and do what they can. They'll try to let you know when/where the next free-seminars are occurring so you can go. But even just the bouncing around to different professionals can be detrimental to someone trying to recover from serious mental health issues. Or, if you don't live in a big city... you're just boned.