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SUMMARY
Canada is the only
advanced industrial country that does not
have a national strategy or plan on mental
health. As a result, people in Canada suffer
unnecessary disability and mortality from
mental illness, addictions, and poor mental
health, and system costs continue to rise.
One in five people in Canada experience
mental illness and are dependent on support
from their families, communities, the
economy, and a stretched social service
system. This paper explains why a national
mental health strategy is urgently needed.
Canadian jurisdictions have undertaken
measures to improve mental health service
quality and access, as well as mental health
promotion. However, these measures have
typically been piecemeal, under funded or
unaligned. Only a coordinated
inter-jurisdictional approach among
governments can overcome the obstacles that
stand in the way of getting mental health
reform right in Canada.
In September 2004, the federal,
provincial, and territorial governments
committed themselves to a 10-Year Action
Plan on health care based on a national
vision of improved access and quality of
services. This action plan, unfortunately,
overlooked commitments to comprehensively
improve mental health treatment, follow-up
services, prevention strategies, and to
address mental health promotion. Without a
concerted commitment in this area, the human
and financial costs of mental illness and
poor mental health will only increase, and
our health care system will continue to
falter.
Governments in Canada need to act quickly
to respond to the mounting prevalence of
mental health conditions, their rising costs
to our economy, and the serious incapacities
of our health and social service systems to
respond to changing needs.
Governments must also begin to face the
especially difficult and long-ignored mental
health challenges experienced in Canada’s
First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities.
Developing solutions must include the full
involvement of First Nations, Métis and
Inuit leaders, and the communities
themselves.
Canada’s situation regarding a national
mental health strategy can be compared to
that of the United Kingdom, Australia and
New Zealand. Each country has adopted
national mental health action plans in
recent years, and in each country, the
successful evolution of a national plan was
predicated on the active involvement of a
federal government. Each country’s plan
emphasizes mental health promotion,
increased research, appropriate indicators
or targets, and robust surveillance systems.
Consumers of mental health services have
played an instrumental role in the design
and delivery of these countries’ mental
health strategies.
It is proposed that a Framework for
Action on Mental Illness and Mental Health
should focus on four priorities:
- Leadership:
Federal, provincial, and territorial
governments must demonstrate
co-operative leadership to improve
access and quality of mental health
services and programs.
- Information: Canada
must build a national data collection
and reporting system.
- Research:
Governments must strategically invest in
new research.
- Promotion:
Effective mental health promotion
initiatives must be undertaken.
The overriding goals of these actions
should be to prevent disability, alleviate
suffering from mental illness, and
facilitate improved quality of life, thus
improving the mental health status of people
in Canada.
CAMIMH’s Framework for Action
calls on Canada’s health and social policy
ministers to act by setting
in motion a national action plan on mental
health and mental illness. It urges
all jurisdictions to increase mental health
resources and to work with stakeholders to
change policies ensuring better access to
quality services for those who need them and
programs that result in improved mental
health of the population. The Framework for
Action urges the federal government to lead
by example by demonstrating its resolve to
bring all parties together in a national
dialogue and by taking steps to improve
policy capacity and service delivery in
areas of its direct responsibility.
Full Report
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