Dr. Lesley Lutes is co-author of a new review in Canadian Psychology on integrating psychologists into Canadian primary care.
As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to host the inaugural Canada Investment Summit in Toronto this September, a new review co-led by researchers at UBC argues that the country is leaving one of its largest economic and health-care system opportunities untouched: the integration of psychological care into primary care.
Published in Canadian Psychology, the review synthesizes three decades of national and international evidence to make the case that Canada already has the workforce and the science to close one of the widest gaps in its health-care system, and that the missing piece is policy.
“One in two primary-care visits in this country now involves a mental-health concern, and family doctors themselves say they don’t have the training, the time or the team to handle that load,” says Dr. Michelle St. Pierre, a postdoctoral fellow in UBC Okanagan’s Department of Psychology and corresponding author on the review. “The model that works—integrated primary care—has been studied for decades. We just haven’t built it here at scale.”
The review also documents the cost of the status quo.
Roughly two in five Canadians with a mental-health condition say they are not getting the care they need. About 6.5 million individuals lack a family doctor, the highest rate among Canada’s peer countries.
Mental illness costs the Canadian economy an estimated $42 billion annually in treatment and support, with another $50 billion in lost productivity and absenteeism.
What the review found
Integrated primary care embeds mental-health specialists, including psychologists, directly within family-practice teams. Across studies from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, the pattern is consistent:
Wait times fall. One Canadian study documented drops of more than six weeks when a psychologist joined a primary-care team.
Patients engage. Up to 90 per cent of patients referred to co-located mental-health providers complete their treatment, outperforming traditional referrals.
Outcomes improve. Patients show measurable, lasting improvements in depression, anxiety and chronic disease management.
Physicians benefit. Doctors in fully integrated practices report lower burnout and greater professional satisfaction.
Costs come down. A Canadian economic analysis estimated that every dollar invested in publicly covered psychological services returns roughly two dollars in savings to society.
A working example in BC
Since 2023, a registered clinical psychologist has been embedded one day per week in the UBCO Student Health Clinic through the Primary Care Psychologist Program, a UBC Okanagan pilot developed by the review’s co-authors.
The psychologist works alongside the medical team to identify and treat mental-health concerns early. The program is now standard practice at the clinic, with evaluation of patient outcomes ongoing.
“What the Primary Care Psychologist Program shows is that the model is not theoretical—it’s a staffing decision waiting to be made at scale,” says co-author Dr. Lesley Lutes, Professor and Director of the Centre for Obesity and Well-Being Research Excellence.
“Our paper is not a critique of any one government. It’s an attempt to put the full evidence base on the table so the next conversation can move faster.”
