Ontario Election 2007: Focus on Addiction and Mental Health

In Ontario Election 2007: Focus on Addiction and Mental Health:

• Addiction and mental health — a strong provincial role
• Funding for addiction programs
• Social investments in human health
• Supporting the full inclusion of people with mental illness and addiction
• Recognizing the critical role of families
• A provincial drug strategy
• Provincial support for a Canadian mental health and addiction strategy

Hope

Election campaigns should be a time to talk about issues that matter - issues fundamental to our prosperity, health and quality of life.

Addiction and mental health don’t often get attention at election time. But as we approach the Ontario election in 2007, recent research tells us that the cost of substance abuse and mental illness is staggering: $34 billion each year.(1) While this figure includes the direct costs of health care, law enforcement and injuries, the bulk of the cost is in lost productivity in workplaces across Ontario. As the labour market has tightened and the struggle to retain qualified workers has intensified, depression has replaced cardiovascular disease as the single greatest cause of workplace absenteeism. Clearly, there is an enormous economic reason to address mental health and addiction.

Millions of Ontario families already know that the biggest costs of addiction and mental health cannot be measured in dollars and cents. That is because 20 per cent of people will personally experience a mental illness in their lifetime, and most others will be indirectly affected by the addiction or mental illness of a family member, friend or colleague.(2) Individuals know the profound human costs of stigma, loss of control, broken relationships, marginalization and suicide. And families know the frustration of looking for community supports that are often insufficient. Our understanding of the addiction and mental health systems must start with people.

Community

By placing people at the centre of our approach, we directly address the harmful consequences of stigma.

Stigma is much more than a bad feeling. Stigma prevents people from getting the treatment they need; it prevents families from receiving the support they deserve; and it deprives our communities and our workplaces of the contributions that can be made by our fellow citizens. Personal experiences also shatter myths that are dangerous and pervasive: the myth that people cannot recover from an addiction, and the myth that those with a serious mental illness will live their lives in persistent social exclusion.

Increasingly, evidence tells us that the right intervention and social supports can pay huge dividends - financially, socially and personally.

Our experience demonstrates that we have the techniques, knowledge and understanding to support meaningful changes in the lives of people living with addiction and mental illness. Advances in therapies and technologies, evidence-based interventions, and client and family empowerment are all crucial ingredients in matching addiction and mental health resources with the human capacity for recovery.

Understanding

Public investment in human recovery is absolutely critical.

The Government of Ontario plays an enormous role in the lives of people with addiction and mental illness - through direct health care investments and by providing a critical social safety net.

In the past two decades, governments have not ignored these problems. Successive provincial governments have developed policies to shift the focus from institutions to a more balanced system that recognizes the full range of community supports required by those experiencing mental illness and confronting addiction. Ontario's Making It Happen policy paper (2000) established a vision of a client-centred system providing a continuum of care that links facility-based and community-based care. The current government has turned policy into action by making important investments in community mental health. This government has also demonstrated exemplary leadership in addressing the significant health effects of tobacco use.

Yet significant challenges remain. Despite the welcome announcement of new funds in the 2007 budget, Ontario's addiction system remains poorly funded, and poorly prepared to face the challenges of meeting increased demand and retaining qualified staff. Community mental health agencies also require investment, as evidenced by the prolonged length of stay of mental health clients in hospitals because community supports cannot be found.(3) Our health system is undergoing enormous transformation with the establishment of Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs). Research on experiences in other jurisdictions suggests that with regionalization comes the risk of neglecting the provincial interest in continuing the path of mental health reform.(4) At all levels we must improve opportunities for meaningful client and family participation. And the Province of Ontario must demonstrate the sam commitment to addressing the harms associated with alcohol and other drugs that it has provided on tobacco control.

As we approach the Ontario election of 2007, the addiction and mental health sector offers a plan to support human recovery.

Transformation

It is a plan that requires imagination, leadership and resources.

It is a plan that proposed modest investments - programs and services that can start to reduce the effects of Ontario’s $34 billion addiction and mental illness problem.

Footnotes

(1) William Gnam et al., “The Economic Costs of Mental Disorders and Alcohol, Tobacco and Illicit Drug Abuse in Ontario, 2000: A Cost-of-Illness Study.” October 2006.

(2) Health Canada, “A Report on Mental Illness in Canada, 2002.”

(3) Canadian Institute for Health Information, "Hospital Mental Health Services in Canada, 2003–2004.”

(4) Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, “Mental Health and Addiction Services in Regionalized Governance Structures: A Review.” March 2005.

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