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Mental illness affects about 1 in 5 Canadians during their lifetime but only approximately 30% of people needing help actually access mental health ser vices (Gravel, Connolly & Bédard, 2004). This low access rate is worrisome and may not accurately depict the reality as it is lived out by linguistic minorities. The present study documents both the need for and access to English-lan guage mental health services by the Estrie region’s English-speaking minority. Intending to record their needs and access experiences against the backdrop of available English-language mental health services, both users and providers of these services were surveyed in tandem. This novel approach to mental health needs assessment research shows the precarious situation of this minority community (high need/low access to language-congruent mental health ser vices) to be further compromised by misperceptions of service availability.