The Broken Mental Health System
A student finds they keep missing class because the pressures of school are unbearable, a mother looks at her child and wishes she could be happy for them, an older man finds that his life doesn’t seem of value anymore, all of these situations involve some sort of mental illness. According to the Canadian Mental Health Association, 1 in 5 Canadian’s will experience some form of mental illness and only 1 in 4 adults that need treatment are getting it as cited in a Globe and Mail article. Many Canadians find themselves suffering from a mental illness. The problem with our current system is it is mainly for wealthy people and does not work for the middle class. If you are a student, single mom, or minimum wage worker, you can either wait months to get into a free program, or pay the large amount for private therapy. With the growing numbers of people with anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness, very few people are getting the help they need. The system needs to change. Therapy needs to be more accessible for the average Canadian. Mental health effects the workforce, but putting more money into it now and following Britains lead will help Canadians and the economy.
Risk Analytica reports that 2 in 9 worker’s suffer from a mental illness that most likely effects their work productivity. This article states that around 6 billion dollars is lost annually because of less productivity from mental illness. The Globe and Mail cites that 30% of insurance claims from the work place is because of mental illness. Canadian’s are suffering from the system. Doctors were asked why they do not usually refer therapy and it is because of cost according to the Globe and Mail. Proper mental health treatment should not be a luxury. As cited in the Globe and Mail, people who have a mental illness are more likely to abuse substances such as alcohol and drugs, which could lead to further health problems and more money the government has to pay. These high and growing numbers make what the government puts into mental health currently ridiculous. The Canadian government only puts 7% of health care costs into mental health according to the Globe and Mail. This article also cites that Britain is putting 12x the money per citizen to mental health. We need to follow Britain’s lead.
The argument of where the money would come from is a valid question, but it is worth looking into because of how serious this problem is and how many Canadians are effected. Although changing how Canada supports mental health at the beginning would be expensive, in the long run the lower costs of medication, insurance claims, and higher productivity in the work place would pay it back and more. Following Britain’s lead with Mental Health care would cost around 2.8 billion annually according to the Globe and Mail. Although this number can seem high it is only a very small amount of the 210 billion Canada spends on health care each year. Britain has also found with proper training therapists don’t need PhDs to give promising treatments, so they have trained many university graduates as therapists to help add to their public program according to the Globe and Mail. This is a system Canada needs to follow.
The student with anxiety, the mom with postpartum, and the man with depression are all Canadians with a mental illness who are suffering. According to a paper by Risk Analytica, the amount of people that live with a mental illness will go up 31% in 30 years. We need to act now. If we follow Britains lead with investing into mental health, not only will we make the money back but many Canadian’s lives will be changed. The money the Canadian government puts into mental illness now is simply not enough with the growing numbers. The system needs to change and therapy needs to be more accessible.
https://cmha.ca/about-cmha/fast-facts-about-mental-illness
CJ, this was a really great article and really struck a chord in me. As someone who is very open about her mental health, I really appreciated you covering this topic. I myself have been one of those to have to go on e.i. due to medical leave and mental health. I was off of work for 3 months with my doctor informing me I was not well enough to go to work, but all they would do for me was continue upping my medication. Not once was therapy given to me as an option from my Doctor and I believe I would have greatly benefited from it at the time. Therapy is something I encourage anyone to do if they have it in their capability though I agree it is not an option for most people. Even when one waits on a wait list for forever to get into a more affordable program, the likelihood of you working well with that professional is small. If Therapy was more affordable and given more attention by the Canadian Government, people would be able to find the therapist that actually works well for them without breaking the bank!
ReplyDeleteThe Center for Addiction and Mental health states that mental illness will have effected 1 in every 2 Canadians at some point by the time they reach 40. That is pretty much half the population. They also state that "70% of mental health problems have their onset during childhood or adolescence", I wonder what kind of change it would make if we started to implement actual counselling and therapy to all children? No matter what their backgrounds, every child needs to be heard. I think if they had a sounding board (counselor or therapist) to speak to that was not family or friend, truly unbiased and just there solely for that child to help face their insecurities and their problems... I truly think we would see a society with a decrease in mental illness or at least we would all have better tools to handle it.