Health committee  Thank you to the chair and the committee for inviting me to present today on the topic of the mental health of women. By way of introduction, as you've heard, I am a psychiatrist. I'm the head of the department of psychiatry at Women's College Hospital in Toronto, where I also hold a research chair in women's mental health.

Status of Women committee  I think it would make a huge difference. The federal government could fund specifically these coordinating centres to get everything on board and get the standards going so that we could monitor and really make sure we're doing a good job. The bottom line is that it could fund people, because we still need people to treat people, whatever—

Status of Women committee  No. I am biased, but I see mental health as a medical issue and a health issue. Why would we deliver certain medical care and not certain other medical care?

Status of Women committee  With the lack of access to care, you have to remember that one of the biggest reasons for developing a mental health issue around pregnancy and postpartum is lack of social support. We could prevent it so easily with some pretty low-intensity, low-cost interventions. That's why I made the second point that I did, and Dr.

Status of Women committee  I'll answer in English, if I may. Thank you very much. I think that if we could fund community organizations where the people in those organizations had the ability to support their communities...we know from evidence that this can prevent postpartum depression and can treat mild and moderate illness.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for the question. In answer to your other question about the 2:1 ratio, between menarche and menopause, depression and anxiety are twice as common in girls and women as they are in men. It's thought that this is because of some of the unique reproductive issues we were talking about related to menstruation and pregnancy, as well as because of the fact that women and girls are disproportionately affected by risk factors for mental illness, as we've heard today, like violence, poverty, lack of education, etc.

Status of Women committee  Thank you for welcoming me today to assist with your study on the mental health of young women and girls. Thank you for inviting me to appear before you this morning. As a medical doctor, psychiatrist and researcher, I have spent my career focused on the mental health of women and girls across the lifespan.