Human Resources committee  I've heard the same thing you've heard. In fact, we witness it. We partner with and we work inside our hospitals, so our staff are working in an integrated manner. It is the moral distress of not being able to provide the care, the burnout, having to deal with the number of deaths you've witnessed from the pandemic, and transferring patients.

Human Resources committee  I think it's the fact that there's an investment and that people can see careers in mental health whereby they can support the well-being of their community, and the integration of health and mental health. Mental health is health, and we know that, so as we integrate care, I think it's going to be an exciting profession in which people can really make change and improve well-being.

Human Resources committee  I want to share what my branch of the CMHA started. It's the first of its kind in Canada, funded by the federal government through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. We've embedded holistic, trauma-informed mental health care in settlement agencies. It is specific to our region.

Human Resources committee  I really do agree with that statement. I think there are efforts made to better integrate health care so that we can provide holistic care, whether they are digital strategies, where we can all share electronic medical records, or just how we fund, as you said, better prevention.

Human Resources committee  Oh, absolutely. We need a huge investment. We need investment in core publicly funded community-based counselling and psychology. Programs that have recently launched across Canada, such as the BounceBack program, need to be available for all Canadians. We need to prioritize more investment in housing, income supports and food security, because you are never going to fix somebody's mental health if they are afraid that they have nowhere to live and nothing to eat.

Human Resources committee  I think it's broken down into the rising complexity of care. Honestly, we are seeing exacerbated symptoms because people who may have been been treated earlier have waited longer. People are presenting with much more complex, deeper issues around substance abuse and misuse and larger degrees of homelessness and not being adequately housed.

Human Resources committee  The report spoke to a robust community mental health and addiction care sector where we provide early, easy access to Canadians. We support access, and we support navigation and referral that is integrated with our other health care partners. We have to look at this in terms of a robust child mental health care sector where we're looking at families and early intervention.

Human Resources committee  I'm so glad you asked that question. There are a couple of really key things. I really believe we need a public health awareness campaign around moderate use of alcohol and cannabis in particular. Since the pandemic, we have seen, particularly with men, a 39% rise in risky cannabis use and 28% rise in problematic risky alcohol use.

Human Resources committee  Thank you for that question. We certainly have had challenges because we have not had base funding increases. Of course we're very worried about a provincial Bill 124, which limits our ability at this time to provide competitive wages to attract new talent. We can't always rely on more money and better compensation, so what do we focus in on?

Human Resources committee  I don't have any quantitative measures to give you that are accurate statistics, but I can give you anecdotal information. We know that the rates of sick leave across the country are going up. Much of the sick leave, long-term disability and short-term disability, is related to mental health issues as the leading cause of disability.

Human Resources committee  Hello. I'm the chief executive officer for the Canadian Mental Health Association, serving York Region and South Simcoe. We are across 11 provinces and territories in our divisions, with 75 branches serving over 330 communities across Canada, and we are one of the largest clinical providers in all of Ontario.

Health committee  Right now, as we know, there are many busy emergency departments receiving intake from the police, who are taking people to hospitals for care often as a first source, or people don't know where to go for care. With this 24-7 design for people to be welcomed to get the services and connected to the services they need, it supports access, supports navigation and de-escalates crisis.

Health committee  Thank you. Our branch is leading the development of a first-in-Canada and, certainly, a first-in- Ontario, 20-bed mental health and addiction crisis hub. For those familiar with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, CAMH, it's similar to the CAMH emergency model, except this is for those 12 years old and up and is integrated with community supports.

Health committee  That's a great question. Right now we are working with provincial capital funding to try to establish the capital planning requirements so that we are seen to have completed our functional plan and are waiting for final sign-off. We are hopeful that it will happen before the provincial government drops the writ, so that we get our next tranche of funding.

Health committee  I really believe that this is a multi-government approach. We have a lot of municipal support as well, and the federal government can also step up with supporting access and how this can support our newcomer and refugee population. I talked about an integrated model as well. This can't be siloed.