Good morning. I am Gail Czukar. I am grateful for the opportunity to present today on behalf of Addictions and Mental Health Ontario.
Addictions and Mental Health Ontario is the provincial voice for over 220 organizations that provide mental health and addiction services and supports. These include supportive housing, outpatient care, community-based counselling and case management, withdrawal management, residential addiction programs, peer support, and hospital treatment programs.
Our members see first-hand the impact of mental illness and addiction on productivity and the health of our communities. Each week, 500,000 Canadians will miss work due to a mental health or addiction issue. The Conference Board of Canada has estimated that untreated mental illness and addiction cost the Canadian economy upwards of $50 billion a year.
As you are aware, we are in the midst of an opioid crisis. Just last week, Hamilton lost five individuals to opioid overdose. Last year, it was 46 people. One of those young men was a resident of one of our members' supportive housing programs.
I want to be clear. This is not just about opioids. We are in fact facing an addiction and mental health crisis. To paraphrase Dr. Gabor Maté, an addiction physician in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, we have to ask ourselves not “Why the addiction?” but instead, “Why the pain?”
Addiction and mental health issues touch all of our lives. I am sure many of the committee members here can speak first-hand to lived experience with mental illness or addiction, whether for themselves, a child, a family member, a friend, or a colleague. What I bet all those instances have in common is the significant struggle in knowing where to find help.
Eleven years ago, the Senate urged Canadians to bring mental illness and addiction “out of the shadows”. We are making progress on reducing stigma, but when people reach out for help, who is there to take their hand? Eleven years after the Kirby report, I am sad to say that Canadians living with mental illness and addictions are not that much better off. We've made some progress but not enough. The good news is that we know what works, and we have many examples of programs and innovations that are ready to be scaled up.
Our recommendations to the Standing Committee on Finance are straightforward. They are detailed in our written submission, which was made in August. I understand that you have that.
I am going to focus this morning just on our central recommendation, which is to target investments in mental health and addiction where they will have the greatest impact: in the community. The other points—about partnering with indigenous communities on mental health and addiction, preventing the opioid crisis from worsening, and targeting housing funds to supportive housing—are included in our written submission.
What helps people recover and sustain a better quality of life? Although prescription medication can be an important component of treatment, it is not enough, in most cases, for a person to achieve recovery. Emergency departments are a critical resource. In fact, for many people with mental health and addiction issues, they are the only resource. But where would each of us want our loved ones to find the support they need to rebuild their lives? We would want them to find somewhere where they are treated as a person first, where they have a say in their treatment, and where all of their needs and challenges are considered.
We would want them to find services like case management and counselling, and in some cases housing, in addition to these supports. We would want them to be connected to peer support workers who have gone through what they've gone through. We would want the services to be flexible so that, if necessary, they can be connected to more intensive services, such as residential addiction treatment programs.
There is ample evidence to support the value and outcomes of the community-based services I just mentioned. Take, for example, the managed alcohol supportive housing program offered by Nipissing Mental Health Housing and Support Services, in North Bay, Ontario. Six months prior to moving into the home, their seven residents spent a combined 315 days in the hospital. Six months after the move-in, that number dropped to zero. We do know what works. Community services enable greater client choice and support people to do just that—live meaningful lives in their communities.
To conclude, the health transfer investments in mental health and addiction are a welcome start, but we know that mental health and addiction are chronically underfunded in Canada. The Mental Health Commission of Canada recommends increasing health spending on mental health and addiction from 7% to 9%. In Ontario, at current health spending levels, the health transfer in year five will bring mental health and addiction spending up to 7.3% of the total health budget.
Too many Canadians are struggling with mental health and addiction problems and not getting the help they need. I am asking you today, “When Canadians reach out to make the call for help, will you be there to answer?”
Thank you.