Mental health worsening across Canada, access to care is uneven: report [Video]

Kristin Pardy hid her bulimia for more than 10 years.

When she finally mustered the courage to go to her local clinic in Cartwright — a community of about 400 people in southern Labrador — and share her “secret,” the nurses were “amazing” and got her a referral to an outpatient eating disorders program in St. John’s.

But St. John’s is about 1,400 km away, and as a working mom, ”I couldn’t leave my kids for that long. I definitely couldn’t leave my job for that long,” Pardy said.

“Because it was going to be an outpatient program, I would still have to pay to find accommodations for the six to eight weeks that I was there. I’d still have to pay my bills while I was there. I’d still have to feed myself while I was there,” the 38-year-old paramedic said in an interview by phone.

”(With) the financial …