Mr. Speaker, this week is the third annual Mental Illness Awareness Week. The Canadian Psychiatric Association and other organizations are focusing on mental illness in the family this week.
Mental illness can affect anyone at any time. One in every five Canadians will suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives. Canadian hospital costs for people being treated for mental illnesses exceed $1 billion a year. We as Canadians have a responsibility to do our part, especially in these times of fiscal restraint.
Governments, organizations, communities, families and the individuals diagnosed with mental illnesses have to work together to create a more cost effective, more humane approach to the treatment of mental illness.