Feds pushed to make mental health a priority

OTTAWA The Trudeau government is being urged to make mental health a top priority as it negotiates a new health accord with the provinces and territories.

Dr. Catherine Zahn, president of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, says mental illness afflicts some 6.7 million Canadians — roughly 20 per cent of the population — and costs the economy an estimated $51 billion each year.

That’s a bigger burden than is caused by cancer or infectious diseases. and yet Zahn says only about seven per cent of the billions spent on health care in Canada goes to mental illness.

Zahn wants the health accord to explicitly earmark funds for research aimed at determining the biological origins of conditions like addiction, depression, schizophrenia, autism and dementia.

She says it should also commit to national public wait time standards for access to mental health treatments and commit to meaningful reductions in those wait times over the next decade.

As well, Zahn wants federal and provincial governments to commit to improving access to “structured psychotherapy” — which has proven effective in the treatment of anxiety and depression — and to list it as a medically necessary, publicly funded service within “a reasonable time frame.”

Zahn is not putting a specific price tag on her wish list, which she is to detail in a speech later today to the Economic Club of Ottawa.

“We’re asking for a concrete, rational and effective federal investment directed toward improving the mental health of individuals and the mental health of our population,” she says in the text of the speech, provided to The Canadian Press.

“Through a health accord, our political leaders have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring justice to those who live with mental illness.”

In negotiations on the accord, federal Health Minister Jane Philpott has put $3 billion over four years on the table, earmarked for improving access to home care. She has said she’s willing to consider more money for other priorities, including mental health, but only if the provinces agree to spend the money on the agreed-upon priorities.

In their platform for last year’s election, the Liberals promised to “make high-quality mental health services more available to Canadians who need them, including our veterans and first responders.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose mother has openly recounted her own battles with mental illness, has made it something of a personal priority.