October 3, 2022
Read the story as it originally appears in The Hill Times
No more rhetoric. We need urgent action from the federal government now to ensure no one who needs mental health and substance use care and support is left out or left behind.
The availability and accessibility of mental health and substance use services across Canada was severely limited before COVID, but the pandemic has been the equivalent of pouring gasoline on a fire. Mental health needs have exploded during the pandemic, a situation that requires urgent action by the federal government.
Prior to COVID, children could wait up to two and a half years for mental health care in Ontario and adults in Canada could wait up to several months. The average wait time for adult residential substance use treatment is 100 days in Ontario. Wait times for supportive housing can be up to five years in major cities.
The pandemic has hit people with pre-existing mental health and substance use conditions, those with low incomes, the unemployed, youth, and women with younger children particularly hard. There are also higher rates of suicidal ideation among Black and other ethno-racialized groups.
Those working on the frontlines of care are not immune. Nearly 87 per cent of health-care workers indicated that they felt more stressed at work during the pandemic, according to data released by Statistics Canada in June 2022. Even before COVID-19, health-care workers were suffering from stress, depression, anxiety, burnout and increased risk of suicide.
Demand for mental health services continues to increase and while it is now well-established that mental health is equally as important as physical health — that mental health is health — we have a long way to go when it comes to providing adequate access to mental health programs and care.
Even though Canadian healthcare and health research institutions continue to make tremendous strides in improving mental health care and support programs, those dedicated efforts must be matched by similar commitment from the federal government. That action must include introducing mental health parity legislation guaranteeing timely access to quality, inclusive mental health and substance use care for everyone in Canada.
The guarantee of timely access to quality, inclusive mental health and substance use care across the country Canada will ensure greater and more equitable access to a wide range of publicly funded mental health and substance use services. This will extend beyond the current publicly subsidized services provided in hospital and by physicians.
The Liberal government has recognized the importance of the issue. In its platform for the 2021 election, they committed to establishing permanent, ongoing funding for mental health services under the Canada Mental Health Transfer, with an initial investment of $4.5 billion over 5 years. It is vital that this money be included in Budget 2023.
In addition to the need for enhanced access to services, the pandemic also highlighted the need for more affordable and supported housing across Canada, where the federal government could collaborate with provinces and territories to develop an accountability-based funding model for affordable and supported housing.
Supportive housing combines affordable housing and support staff and allows some people dealing with mental illness and substance use concerns to live in the community. Such an approach follows the “right care, in the right place” approach and has proven to lead to with improved health outcomes and reduced use of acute health and emergency services.
A clear funding model developed in collaboration with provinces and territories would facilitate a full array of affordable and supportive housing. It would help create a standardized model across Canada, leverage existing not-for-profit housing development organizations, and support the spread and scale of proven approaches. Most importantly, it would enhance appropriate care being provided at the appropriate time and in the right place.
Enhancing supportive housing would also help reduce the number of patients in acute care hospitals who would be better cared for elsewhere and should not be in hospital, a key factor in Canada’s nation-wide emergency care access crisis.
It is heartening to see more awareness and support growing concerning the need to improve access to mental health services and substance use supports across Canada, but awareness of the issues only goes so far. No more rhetoric. We need urgent action from the federal government now to ensure no one who needs mental health and substance use care and support is left out or left behind.
Paul-Émile Cloutier, President & CEO
HealthCareCAN
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