Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and the committee, for the opportunity to present today—

Health committee  Thank you very much. I think we all know and all heard about the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of Canadians. I want to focus my remarks today on two specific areas where I think the federal government can help. I was very pleased to see that the federal government assigned a new Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

Health committee  First and foremost, obviously as did all mental health agencies, we switched to, as much as possible, virtual care. That allowed access to people. I mentioned that we need to ensure equity of access. We offered specific counselling for frontline health care workers and we offered a variety of walk-ins.

Health committee  Uncertainty is a trigger for all of us. Uncertainty leads to higher stress. We're dealing with people who are in acute stages of stress and chronic stress. What that means is that they're at a higher risk of trauma, which means they're at a higher risk of depression. Trauma and depression may lead to suicide.

Health committee  It is really true that each province and territory addresses health care differently. Mental health affects us all, but we do have unique community needs. This is what we're seeing. At the very basic level, we understand that COVID, which is a health care issue, has impacted different communities differently in disease with completely different impacts and outcomes.

Health committee  We know from previous pandemics that it is going to increase. Let me explain the why of that. You're right in the sense that uncertainty and vulnerability are disproportionately impacting people. For example, communities that have precarious employment just like that.... I'm so sorry about that young individual.

Health committee  I'll wrap up with a final point about about improving access to virtual care through technology. We know that virtual mental health services are making a difference, but there's an equity-of-access issue. If we can't provide equity of access to those vulnerable, BIPOC, and multi-generational populations, we're not going to be able to provide timely care, and the crisis will grow.

Health committee  Thank you so much. It's an honour to be here with the honourable members of Parliament and my colleagues. I'm going to get to the point and speak very honestly about what I believe are the top recommendations you know from the news, that mental health is an emerging crisis, but I really want to talk about what you need to think about.