Mr. Chair and honourable members, thank you for inviting the Canadian Grief Alliance to speak to you today.
We're a coalition of grief experts and more than 150 leading health organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association, and the Canadian Psychiatric Association. We came together last spring to ask all levels of government to urgently turn their minds to the issue of grief in the context of COVID-19 and in anticipation of the deadly toll we have seen since.
Almost every one of us has suffered grief in our lives: the loss of a mother or father, a brother or sister, or perhaps a child or close friend. As profound as our grief may have been, what most of us suffered was the usual response of human beings to profound loss. Most of us, with the help of family and friends and the passage of time, rejoined the trajectory of our lives, even if the ache of loss never entirely disappeared, but what the research tells us is that when grief is complicated, when its circumstances prevent us from having the space or the support to grieve, it can transform into depression or anxiety, dependence or addiction, and self-harm or the thoughts of it.
Today, we're suffering a pandemic of grief. Nearly 20,000 Canadians have died of COVID-19. The image of a nurse holding an iPad at someone's deathbed is now a familiar one. Robbed of the chance to be with their loved one at their deathbed, the grieving may have a funeral replaced with a Zoom call. Instead of a house filled up with family and friends, the grieving may have a frozen lasagna dropped off at their doorstep—socially distanced, no hug, no touch, no lingering visit.
Nowadays, much of this is also true of those who grieve for the 25,000 people in Canada who die of heart disease, cancer or anything else in an ordinary month. More than two million Canadians are estimated to have been touched directly by death in their circle during this pandemic, and their experience is anything but normal. It's complicated grief, the kind that we know can lead to enduring mental health issues.
Specific communities are especially affected. Health workers are exposed to a scale of suffering that even they are unaccustomed to. The CGA also recognizes the generations of grief that indigenous people carry as the result of colonization and structural violence, which are often overlooked in public health policy.
Our existing system is not well equipped to deal with grief, in part because it is rightfully not regarded as a form of mental illness. Indeed, mental health advice that is sound for those suffering from anxiety or depression may actually make matters worse for the grieving. The grieving need dedicated support that understands the nature of their grief and how to guide them. That's why we at the Canadian Grief Alliance believe it's time for a Canadian grief strategy, whose aim would be to help Canadians avoid succumbing to enduring mental health challenges that will diminish their lives and take a toll on our society and our health care system.
I'll ask my colleague Maxxine Rattner to take it from there.