Nova Scotia increases mental health funding.

HALIFAX -- District health authorities' and IWK Health Centre mental health budgets will have an additional $2 million, Health Minister Angus MacIsaac announced.

The money is being allocated for the following priorities in the mental health area:

* additional mental health staff for child and youth programs in seven districts;

* additional staff for crisis response, emergency services and early response programs in four districts;

* new case managers for youth and adult community programs in Cumberland and Pictou counties;

* a new reproductive psychiatry service in the Capital region (a partnership between Capital Health and IWK Health Centre);

* a new navigation service for youth mental health patients at the IWK Health Centre;

* a new youth sex offender treatment program.

One-time projects receiving funding include: $19,000 for training in psychosocial rehabilitation for staff in Southwest Health district; $37,000 to develop a consumer participation program in Annapolis Valley district; $70,000 for Dalhousie University department of psychiatry to expand a primary to Grade 6 education program called Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies to English-speaking students in Nova Scotia. The program had been pilot tested with French-speaking students and their teachers in Cheticamp.

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