Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for having me here today. It's particularly timely, given that yesterday was Bell Let's Talk Day, about raising awareness about mental health. The year 2021 marks the 11th year for Bell Let's Talk, and it has a very different feel from what it had in previous years. Partly, that's because mental health has been top of mind since the onset of the pandemic, and the numbers speak for themselves.
A soon-to-be-released Leger poll conducted for the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction spells out some very real concerns. The number of people in Canada reporting strong mental health has dropped by 23%, a drop from about two-thirds of the population to less than half since last March.
While awareness may be higher, the extent to which people with substance use and/or mental health concerns are accessing necessary treatments and supports is not keeping pace. Just 24% of respondents with problematic substance use and 22% with current mental health symptoms have accessed treatments since March.
On the heels of Bell Let's Talk, I think we can agree that it's time for some strong action. Don't get me wrong—five cents a text adds up to important community mental health funding, but to truly put our money where our mouth is, we have to be willing to invest the kinds of dollars that move mountains, quite frankly.
That's why we at the Mental Health Commission of Canada were so pleased to see Parliament unified behind the need for a standardized national mental health crisis hotline. It may be one small step, but any journey begins by putting one foot in front of the other.
Perhaps, though, there is a means to accelerate our progress. While old-fashioned thinking is one means to an end, we'll race to a place of mental health parity more quickly if we're willing to hit fast-forward by leveraging technology, which has shown in many instances to be as effective as face-to-face interventions.
Before we talk about virtual care and e-mental health, two game-changers the commission is strongly advancing, we need to realize that given the complexities of mental illness, there will never be one single adequate solution. We can't separate the mind from the body, nor can we divide mental wellness from the experiences that have formed each of us. As humans, we aren't made up of neat compartments that can be assessed and evaluated in isolation from each other. We tend to be a bit messy and complex, a mixture of biology and psychology, very heavily influenced by social determinants of health such as income, education, race, exposure to trauma, and the list goes on.
The question of equity is going to be central to any truly meaningful progress, and that means shining a light on gaps and building the bridges to span them. With a dearth of culturally appropriate care, dwindling broadband signals in rural and remote communities, tech hesitancy among seniors, and lack of access among people living in poverty, we cannot expect e-mental health to hurdle systemic societal problems that need to be addressed at the root cause.
That doesn't mean we should throw our hands up in the air—quite the contrary. Take Wellness Together Canada, which has just been mentioned. It is built on a framework championed by the commission and is an important example of how partnerships across jurisdictions can translate into meaningful services. Today, we can access free mental health supports through online services that were developed to meet a need, and this happened almost overnight. If we can accomplish that, a feat once thought impossible—if even imagined at all, in fact—imagine how bright the future could be. To date, half a million people have accessed that site, but we know the need runs deeper.
Pre-pandemic, 1.6 million people in this country reported an unmet need for mental health care. Given the precipitous drop in mental wellness, I think it's safe to say that this need has only grown. Yes, it's true that symptoms of anxiety and depression and suicidal thoughts are increasing, but that does not mean that we must accept an echo mental health pandemic as inevitable.
If ever there has been a time to knit a tighter safety net, it is now. Whether we focus on standardizing virtual care or investing in accreditation of mental health apps, there is a critical role for all of you to play as decision-makers with the capacity to champion innovation.
Our late board chair, the Honourable Michael Wilson, put it best when he said, “There needs to be significant funding earmarked for ramping up access to services, community care and suicide prevention. But there must also be latitude for proving the sound economics of creative approaches.” These creative approaches include leveraging new technologies to keep pace with our counterparts in New Zealand and Australia.
COVID has underscored the importance of mental health, highlighting the precariousness of our well-being.
I hope that you will engage in further collaboration and innovation. We look forward to partnering with you in these initiatives.
Thank you kindly.