Baby You Can’t Drive My Car
Disenchanted Americans tend to think of Canada as the land of justice, equality and gay happiness. But not all is progressive pickles and honeysuckle. To wit, the unbelievable outrage in Nova Scotia related to mental health. In order to get a driver’s license there now, you must disclose your psychiatric history.
Service Nova Scotia now requires people renewing their licences to indicate on an application form if they’ve had a “psychiatric or psychological condition.”
People who indicate yes — even if it was something such as a bout of depression — are asked to provide more specific details and then must have a doctor complete a medical, sharing what’s usually confidential information with the government.
The reaction of the mental health advocacy community has been blistering:
“It’s all very strange,” Carol Tooton, executive director of the Nova Scotia division of the Canadian Mental Health Association, said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s not the appropriate approach.”
And:
Stephen Ayers, the executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, said he was uneasy about the requirement and found it intrusive.
“This is concerning, obviously.”
Concering? Not appropriate? If I were a Nova Scotian (is that the right term?), I would skip out of work and grab a picket sign and scream until my throat was raw. This is utterly offensive and discriminatory.
Critics: Don’t tie driver’s licence renewal to psychiatric history
liz | 11:41 AM | Uncategorized
Ugh. Seriously. Canadians…
Not that it makes it any less ridiculous, but I’d guess one could just check ‘no’ on the psychiatric history question. See, there’s an upside here: More people will lie to the government.
Regardless of what happens in the mental health system one can fully expect advocacy organizations to do nothing more then express concern, if even that. It is tragic but I wonder if this reflects a deep seated fear of offending the “hand(s) that feeds them.”
When an organization fails to appropriately advocate on behalf of those whose interests it claims to represent, it is worthwhile to consider who provides its funding. In mental health advocacy funders are often state, federal, and provincial governments and of course, pharmaceutical firms.
Oh, the Government of Canada provided 50% of CMHA’s FYE 3/31/08 revenue (http://www.cmha.ca/data/1/rec_docs/1937_Annual%20report%202008.pdf) and the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia shows three Nova Scotia government entities as supporters. (http://eros.lunarpages.com/~openpo2/SSNS/index_files/Supporters.htm)
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent an injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” – Elie Wiesel.
For more information on funding for U.S. mental health advocacy organizations, please visit http://www.guidestar.org where IRS form 990s can be viewed for free.
It’s always been true that if your doctor chose to notify the government that you were being treated for a mental illness, your license could be revoked. I guess now they’re just trying to streamline the process. That’s okay, I’ll just accept my appropriate place in life, which is obviously not among the independent people who can get themselves where they need to go. Transit is barely an option outside of Toronto.
I think the Canadians are more polite about protest in general. They shouldn’t be, IMO, in this case (to say the least), but that would be like asking them not to say “oot and aboot.”
Pennsylvania put a law on the books many years ago requiring psychiatrists to report to the state patients who were on drugs that might impair driving. I don’t know how many psychiatrists actually do this though. Virginia asks for a disclosure of all medical and psychiatric conditions and drugs taken on its application for a driver’s license and folks with medical conditions have been turned down and required to have special driving evaluations and classes to get a license to my knowledge, don’t know anyone who has for mental illness.
It makes no sense to ask about psychiatric and psychological conditions and leave out diabetes mellitus, kidney failure, history of strokes, heart disease/attacks etc. which are far more often causes of car accidents. Or even more sensible, trust citizens to stop or pause their driving when they are not fit to drive for health reasons. One is not allowed to drive after surgery, but hospitals don’t call the DMV, they trust patients to be sensible.
We can’t rely on organizations that take government funding to speak for us as dmac said.
Actually, there was an outcry. (Apparently; I just looked this up now because it didn’t make any ripples here in Saskatchewan). After receiving complaints, the Nova Scotian (yes that’s the right term)government reversed the decision and are now working with the Canadian Mental Health Association to come up with a more appropriate form. Seriously, what were they thinking?
The Nova Scotia Government will not be going through with this any longer. There was so much outrage and it was incredible to see! As a person living with mental illness for over 20 years, I’m glad to see this foolish idea put to rest.
The Canadian sterotypes expressed by the other commenters gave me a chuckle. I have never said “oot and aboot” and have never met any other Canadians who do.
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