Mental health patients in the region face a potential crisis due to recent Vancouver Island Health Authority budget cuts, according to the chair of a local mental health committee.

Barry Pinchin, who chairs the Southern Gulf Islands Mental Health and Addictions Advisory Committee, said he is appalled to have learned that VIHA intends to close 10 beds at the Eric Martin Pavilion psychiatric hospital, implement measures that will see an estimated 400 patients lose their general psychiatric case workers and take steps to integrate the region’s nine local crisis phone lines.

“We’re making strides and then everything gets cut,” Pinchin said. “We are coming to a crisis.”

In an Oct. 21 letter to MLA Murray Coell, the premier, NDP leader Carole James and others, Pinchin asks government officials to encourage VIHA management to reconsider its approach.

“[Lady Minto Hospital] does not have psychiatric facilities, thus any psychotic patient requiring hospitalization is transported to EMP,” Pinchin wrote. “People from the outer islands already experience delays getting a psychiatric bed and this bed reduction only worsens the situation.”

Pinchin has helped islanders suffering from mental illness, along with their families and friends, for more than a decade.

He eagerly awaits results of VIHA’s “health needs assessment” for the island, announced this summer. Findings are expected by the year’s end.

“We know that there are a wide number of issues that need to be addressed to improve the health of the community, from mental health and addiction issues to seniors care,” said VIHA president and CEO Howard Waldner in a press release about the review in August. “This review will help us provide better care today and plan sustainable services for the future.”

In the meantime, Pinchin encourages all Salt Spring residents to step forward to write letters of their own and offer whatever help they can to improve the plight of people living with mental illness on the island.

“I’m putting out a plea for others to help the most vulnerable,” he said. “The spirit is here, all we have to do is liven it up.”

Spokesperson Shannon Marshall said VIHA’s “community service review” is an attempt to reduce the approximately $24 million in funding given to an estimated 300 community agencies across the health authority’s jurisdiction by $2 million.

The cuts are among some of the steps VIHA officials must implement in order to make up a $45-million budget shortfall announced over the summer, she said.

Cost-saving measures for the Vancouver Island region include scaling back surgeries, privatizing long-term care facilities, cutting back on funding of community programs like Meals on Wheels and the sale of properties in Victoria, Tahsis and Cumberland.

“The community agency service review was extremely difficult and we recognize the impact of these changes,” she said.

“Because we realize that many [local mental health service] organizations rely on VIHA for funding, there will be impacts.”

She said VIHA representatives will work to maximize the efficiency of services with whatever funds are still available.

Though VIHA’s $1.7-billion budget for 2009-10 is at an all-time high, demand for services outpaces budget increases.

VIHA attributes the higher demand to the region’s growing population and the ever-higher number of elderly residents.

The percentage of people age 85 and over has risen 48 per cent since 2003, according to VIHA statistics.

For more information on how to help islanders with mental illnesses, contact Pinchin at pinchinb@telus.net or call 250-537-2543.