VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Anxiety and depression are at epidemic levels in our country, according to younger Canadians answering a new survey. People under 35 place the mental health issues above addiction and physical illnesses.
Fifty-nine per cent who responded to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) survey consider anxiety and depression to be epidemic.
Eighty-five per cent of all Canadians say mental health services are among the most underfunded services in our healthcare system.
“Recently we have seen unprecedented leadership by the federal government — they have committed $5-billion over 10 years — but even then we are the lowest of all G7 countries when it comes to mental health funding,” says Fardous Hosseiny, the CMHA’s national director of research and public policy.
He points out 7.2 per cent of Canada’s healthcare budget is dedicated to mental health while, worldwide, mental illness accounts for about 23 per cent of the total disease burden.
“You look at other countries where they have psychologists, addiction counsellors and social workers as part of the publicly funded system — here they have been relegated to the sidelines.”
The CMHA wants new legislation to improve coordination, treatment, research, and access to treatment. It believes legislation also needs to address stigma and discrimination to improve access for marginalized people.
“There’s something called ‘stepped care approach’ — getting people the right services and supports where they are at the right time. If we invest earlier into community mental health and the lower tiers, it’s less burden on the system,” Hosseiny tells NEWS 1130.
“People are getting worse and worse and once they are in crisis, then they have to get to a hospital bed or psychiatrist. We don’t wait until cancer gets to stage 4 before we treat it, so why do we that with mental illnesses?”
Lengthy wait times are a problem in part, it says, because there has been a “chronic underfunding of community-based mental health services and a reliance on intensive, high-cost services like psychiatrists and hospitals.”
“Our universal health-care system is a point of pride for Canadians,” says Dr. Patrick Smith, national CEO, CMHA. “But the reality is, we don’t have a universal health-care system, but a universal medical system that doesn’t guarantee access to some of the most basic mental health services and supports.”
The CMHA points out more than 1.6 million Canadians report unmet mental health care needs each year.
It says up to 80 per cent of Canadians rely on their family physicians to meet their mental health care needs, but those services can only do so much. The association argues you need addiction counsellors, psychologists, social workers, and specialized peer support workers — but those services aren’t guaranteed through our country’s public system.
“Canadians are suffering from health conditions that are preventable or manageable with the right supports,” says Smith. “By adopting and promoting a ‘stepped-care approach’ to mental health service delivery that matches people to the right services and supports to meet their needs, Canadians will have better access to the right care at the right time.”
It says the need for mental health services and supports is growing, adding by 2020, depression will be the leading cause of disease in Canada.
