Rapid access to psychiatry program wins praise from doctors, patients in Halifax

Dr. Vincent Agyapong, the head of Dalhousie University's psychiatry department and chief of psychiatry for Nova Scotia Health's central zone, prepares to speak in Halifax on Friday, May 2, 2025. Dr. Agyapong has pioneered a system in Nova Scotia where patients with less severe psychiatric ailments get “rapid access” referrals to psychiatrists. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

HALIFAX — A pioneering Nova Scotia program that provides patients with basic psychiatric diagnoses is winning praise for slashing wait times for some people struggling to get help.

Dr. Vincent Agyapong, head of the psychiatry department at Dalhousie University, said Friday that under the program, the median time between a referral and an appointment with a psychiatrist has remained about four to six weeks over the past two years.

The quick pace of service, he said, makes a difference to hundreds of people in the Halifax region who would otherwise struggle in silence. The Rapid Access and Stabilization Program – or RASP – is only available in and around the Halifax area.

“Wait times for treatment remain a major barrier,” he said during a presentation to a group that included mental health experts from across Canada and provincial health officials. “People often face months-long delays to see a mental health professional.”

Agyapong, who launched the program with funding from the province, presented figures showing that since April 2023, more than 2,100 adult patients had been seen by four psychiatrists each devoting a few days a week to the practice, equivalent to two full-time positions.

He said the focus is on seeing patients with “mild to moderate” mental health issues who only need a one-time consultation. In about 70 per cent of the cases, they’re sent back to their family doctors and nurse practitioners with a care plan, Agyapong said.

Patients with more serious and ongoing issues can be referred for additional care to doctors outside the program. About 12 per cent of patients were referred for psychotherapy through community mental health programs, and seven per cent were referred for ongoing psychiatric care.

Emily Kiley, a 40-year-old patient who recently used the rapid access service, said that before she entered the program she was told it would take two years to see a psychiatrist.

However, last December her new family doctor referred her to the rapid access program. She says she completed a preliminary questionnaire and on Jan. 31 visited the clinic in person. She was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADHD.

“It’s three months since I started on the medication. I feel so much better . … Having a diagnosis, I feel I can move forward in my life,” Kiley said.

Dr. Jason Morrison, one of the psychiatrists in the project, said it’s refreshing to be involved in a system where general psychiatric care can be provided without long wait times. “Often, you have to see multiple people in order to win an audience with the psychiatrist, which has never made sense to me,” he said.

Dr. Satyanarayana Ketaraju, a family physician in Dartmouth, N.S., told the seminar he’s happy with the new service. “I feel it has filled a gap in the mental health system,” he said, adding that a conventional referral to Nova Scotia Health could mean “waiting forever before a crisis hits, and (by then) it might be too late for the patient.”

“I would like it to be expanded all over Nova Scotia,” he said.

Agyapon said that with an additional $1 million annually he and the team could scale the program to serve the entire province, rather than solely the Halifax area, referred to as the central zone. With that funding he could add two full-time psychiatrists and other clinicians along with more support staff. The program currently has funding of about $800,000 for its psychiatric staff.

Nova Scotia Health is looking at how it can increase access to the program across the province, says Bethany McCormick, vice-president of mental health and addictions at Nova Scotia Health, in an interview before the seminar. However, McCormick said the government isn’t planning on immediately increasing funding to the project.

The expansion of the rapid access program was among the recommendations in the Lionel Desmond inquiry that was published more than a year ago. That report examined the issues behind why Desmond — a veteran of the Afghanistan war with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and depression — died by suicide Jan. 3, 2017, after fatally shooting his wife, their daughter, and his mother in their Nova Scotia home.

The inquiry found “it took months” to ramp up his care, and called on the province to expand Agyapong’s project.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2025.

By Michael Tutton