Have there been any indications from the government as to why this same strategy is not being implemented in order to attract and retain psychologists, uh, in and for the public system?

So that's a, a question that MPS is continuing to ask.

So we know that psychologists in the public system who are trained at the doctoral level and work in behavioral health and mental health services have been waiting for a long time to receive the same type of recognition that other colleagues have received.

So we've, you know, stood by and watched our colleagues receive meaningful salary increase, uh, increases and retention stipends, uh, while we have not, and now we're seeing our vacancy rate in the public system, uh, the latest estimate was around 30%.

And if you think about that number, it means that one in three psychologist syst- uh, positions in the system remain unfilled.

One in three services do not have the psychologists that they are supposed to have, and this is, uh, particularly high due to high numbers of resignations that have happened, particularly with our mid-career psychologists.

And you can only imagine with that type of vacancy rate the tremendous burden that it places on the psychologists who are remaining in the system, struggling with long wai- wait lists.

How do I know when I need, uh, the, the help of a psychiatrist versus a psychologist?