The city released its report on community social needs for 2017 and mental health is one of the concerns residents had along with crime and transportation.
The Lloydminster Regional Health Foundation (LRHF) partnered with the city on the survey to specifically assess mental health and addiction needs. CEOÂ Malcolm Radke says that the results concerning mental health were not surprising.
“Lloydminster is a younger city, again very transient. A lot of blue collar money here so there’s going to be specific social needs around that and I don’t think any of the results were entirely surprising that way.”
According to the findings when residents were asked about social issues they would consider a priority mental health and addiction were on the list with 57 per cent of respondents each.
Radke says that there are lots of non-profit organizations already doing good work and LRHF is there to support them. More than 60 per cent of people who completed the survey said that they would seek out resources for mental health.
“The stigma is starting to be addressed. People are more and more comfortable talking about it, we’re not there where it’s open dialogue. I think you still see it in different parts of a small city like this.”
When asked about other significant social issues in the community, crime and public transportation came up consistently in the top 3. Transportation has been an issue before and still needs to be addressed. Councilor Mike Diachuk says we need to balance the social needs of the residents with the budget.
“So we have to look at a model that’s gonna somewhere find its way in the middle between meeting the need and not creating deficit.”
Recommendations on what’s next based on the results have been given to the city for further discussion.