Merci, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for inviting me here today. My name is Dr. Patrick Smith. I'm the national CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Canada's most established mental health organization, on the cusp of our 100th year anniversary and with more than 10,000 staff and volunteers in over 100 communities across Canada. I'm here to talk today about investing in evidence-based services and supports for the broad range of mental health problems and mental illness. Mental illness, including substance use disorders, which we've often overlooked and separated out in Canada, affects 6.7 million Canadians, one in five.
Before joining CMHA, as a clinical psychologist I worked in the hospital sector and the community-based sector in mental health. I worked with the B.C. government as the project principal for the development of their 10-year mental health and addiction plan and co-chaired the development of Canada's national addiction treatment strategy. We started both of these plans and the investments of various other jurisdictions to better understand the patient outcomes, system outcomes, and population outcomes that resulted from various investments from a health, social, and economic perspective.
Of all the G8 countries, Canada spends a lower percentage of its total health spending than any other on mental health, 7%. The next lowest is 9%. The Mental Health Commission of Canada and various other stakeholders as well have called for Canada to increase to 9%. We wouldn't be leading the pack; we would just be tied for the lowest.
This historic lack of funding, the 2% gap, isn't just about a number. The result has been that there are significant foundational gaps in our mental health response. Basic evidence-based services and supports that are foundational building blocks in systems around the world in other developed countries are fundamentally missing in Canada. Imagine, if you will, if we learned that across Canada there was wide disparity in access to the educational continuum for kids, one town having fourth and fifth grade and nothing else and a town a hundred kilometres away having only first grade and eighth grade. We wouldn't research the problem. We wouldn't have a strategy or a task force to figure out the problem. We would simply invest in a full developmental continuum of educational offerings.
I graduated with my Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1991 and had to demonstrate proficiency in CBT, cognitive behavioural therapy. It's an evidence-based treatment for many things, including depression, substance use disorder, and anxiety. It's universally accepted as a gold standard treatment. It's not new, but it's mostly not available in Canada unless you pay. It's just one example of the significant gap as the result of years of deferred maintenance on the mental health file.
Other countries and jurisdictions have very recently been in the same boat but quickly turned it around. The U.K. is a great example of that. The young royals—Prince William, Kate, Prince Harry—have recently launched the heads together campaign. Their initiative recognizes that unmet mental health needs lie at the heart of their country's greatest social challenges.
It's the same for Canada. We know what we need to do to dramatically and relatively quickly change the landscape on this, but the first step is to accept the reality that has resulted from this deferred maintenance and demonstrate the leadership to address the problem.
You have an electronic version of our brief. Our submission shows how mental health, including addictions, has a real impact on society. It shows that here in Canada we have some way to go. I'll gladly speak to the details in the question period; however, I'd like to focus on key areas that we believe would help ensure affordable, widely available, and effective mental health solutions for a greater number of Canadians.
While other countries have had the same problems, they have demonstrated a whole-of-government approach. This isn't a health care issue alone. Here in Canada we're seeing some encouraging signs that mental health deliverables are in nine of the ministers' mandate letters. Our hope is that the budget will provide the financial investment to support these deliverables through initiatives such as the Canadian Military and Veterans Mental Health Centre of Excellence for veterans and their families. We need to address the areas in which the gaps are most significant.
This calls on all of us to respond to the mental health needs in indigenous communities. We need to respond to the mental health aspects of truth and reconciliation.
Prime Minister Trudeau has also shown leadership by announcing the federal government's intention to work with the provinces and territories on a health accord to guide the future. The Honourable Jane Philpott, at a recent round table on the health accord, asked why 2017 couldn't be the year that we transform mental health funding in Canada.
I am happy to discuss the tiered model in the question and answer period.