Health committee  In 2012 the Mental Health Commission of Canada will be releasing its national strategy. I think that's a really important starting point. The role of the federal government in rolling out that strategy will be even more important, because the commission doesn't have the ability to lobby and advocate.

Health committee  Thank you. No. A lot of those are risk factors for depression, but one of our most important messages is that depression is not a typical consequence of aging. It is not inevitable, and I think what's equally important is that, if there are a lot of these risk factors in place, and someone is diagnosed as having depression, there are very effective treatments, particularly for older adults—including medications and psychosocial interventions—all of which can be utilized within a setting like long-term care.

Health committee  Living with chronic disease is absolutely one of risk factors. In particular, that's one of the risk factors for suicide. There are a lot of physical illnesses that people experience as they age, but we also see psychosocial factors, such as bereavement, with the loss of partners and friends, and the loss of independence and autonomy.

Health committee  Right now, we work primarily with health care providers to give them knowledge translation tools and some of the best evidence about the information we have in terms of assessment, treatment, prevention, and management. We work with the health care providers who we hope then change their practices.

Health committee  I think this is an area where we have a lot of opportunities to strengthen what we are already doing. There are certainly people who are champions across the country in local communities who do excellent work, but I don't think we're doing it well enough yet. I think it's really important, too, to think about the two separate cohorts that we talk about: our current cohort of older adults who really grew up with a lot more of the stigma associated with mental illness than perhaps our next cohort may experience; and then the baby boomers, a very different generation, the one that we often talk about when we talk about this boom or tsunami that might be coming.

Health committee  Yes, absolutely. I'm very privileged to be part of the Seniors Advisory Committee at the Mental Health Commission of Canada, so I'm very well aware and very proud of the work that has been happening at the Mental Health Commission. Part of what we feel we've contributed, and which we hope to see change policy and practice, is our guidelines for comprehensive mental health services for older adults, which were funded by the Mental Health Commission and will inform part of the strategy moving forward.

Health committee  Thanks for your question. The data we have, sometimes we don't think is necessarily as accurate as we'd like it to be. A lot of the ways mental illness manifests in older adults aren't necessarily captured by some of the tools that we have. If you take depression, for example, some of our data show that in community dwellings samples the rates are similar across all ages, at 12% to 15%.

Health committee  Thank you. Madam Chair, honourable members, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today regarding chronic diseases related to aging. I am very pleased to be able to speak on behalf of the Canadian Coalition for Seniors' Mental Health. As a brief introduction, the CCSMH is a national coalition with approximately 3,000 members from coast to coast to coast, representing a full range of health disciplines, sectors, government and administrators, including older adults and caregivers themselves.