Thank you.
I would agree with Patrick that we have to look at things from the perspective of trying to fundamentally restructure the health care system, and how we make investments now to achieve that. Using his continuum of care model, I think, is really important.
There is some striking data in child and youth services that we really have to pay attention to, and it can result in very strong changes that will benefit the whole continuum of care, and that is this massive increase of hospitalization rates. We are suggesting that the government focus on putting some very significant investment into intensive treatment of kids to get them out of hospital.
It is a clear problem, based on the data we're getting from CIHI. When you have a 60% increase in emergency department admissions for youth mental health in Ontario, you know that you have to pay attention to that data. We believe you need to bolster the intensive treatment system to see that reduction in hospitalizations.
I would go even further than that. I'll let the accountant in me come out now. You're going to get a very strong return on investment from that. We've calculated the cost in Ontario as $175 million a year for that large increase in hospitalizations. When you invest even less than that in community care—we estimate about $120 million annually—you will see savings almost within the same year. That's a pretty fast payback, and my colleague mentioned that investment bankers like that. I can tell you they really like fast paybacks like one year.
Then you'll see other payoffs. You'll see savings in the child welfare and youth justice systems because each one of them depends on a very strong children's mental health system. You'll see rates rising very fast in child welfare and youth justice when you don't have a strong, intensive treatment system for kids.
The long-term payoffs of that kind of investment are really incredible. It's $140,000 per kid over their lifespan.
I think all the data is very clear that if we invest now and try to reduce these skyrocketing hospital rates we'll see very strong return on investment.