Kudos to Bell for continuing to support awareness and programs for the mentally ill. The resulting conversations may trigger the desire to get help, but getting care remains elusive
Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Bell Canada is again using January to raise awareness of issues surrounding Canadians’ mental health. For the past 15 years, the media giant has faithfully produced a “Let’s Talk …” campaign to encourage Canadians to move beyond the “stigma” of mental illness and talk openly about the issue with family and friends.
Unfortunately, this year’s campaign has not received the same degree of visibility as it has in the past. All forms of media seem overwhelmingly preoccupied with a prime minister throwing in the towel, a leadership race to take his place, a controversial U.S. president and, well, a controversial U.S. president. After watching the news, a chat about issues that are negatively affecting the mental health of Canadians seems somewhat redundant. After all, everyone is stressed right now.
Bell’s focus this year is on youth. Bell joined with Mental Health Research Canada to produce A Generation at Risk: The State of Youth Mental Health in Canada, a comprehensive national report that lays out the unique challenges facing our young people.
The numbers are sobering. Approximately 1.25 million youth need mental-health support; almost three in five (57 per cent) young people are not getting the help they need. Suicide is a leading cause (21 per cent) of death, and 24 per cent of those aged 16 to 24 report suicidal ideation. In addition, youth are particularly vulnerable to the onset of mental-health conditions, as 66 per cent to 75 per cent of mental-health issues appear before the age of 24.
Further, the report cites a constellation of contributing factors that, alone and in combination, have had a greater impact on youth mental health since the pandemic, including social disconnection, excessive screen time (more than six hours per day) and socio-economic challenges.
The message is clear: Kids need help and are not getting it. Canada must prioritize mental health, and this means ensuring access (and, in some cases, rapid access) to appropriate care.
In the fall of 2024, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) released a report that provides some insight into the problem of access to mental-health care.
First, funding for care and support is limited. It is hardly surprising given the current state of Canadian health care, but our budget for mental-health care is approximately 50 per cent of what it should be. We dedicate 6.3 per cent of our health-care budget to mental health, while the budgets of peer countries such as France and Germany are 15 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
Canadian analysts suggest that our mental-health budget should be approximately 12 per cent. Double what it is now.
Second, we do not have sufficient infrastructure to provide the required care. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development statistics show that Canada has just 0.37 psychiatric beds per thousand people. In comparison, Japan has more than five times that number (1.94 beds per thousand). When comparing the number of psychiatric beds in 30 countries that have universal health-care systems, Canada ranked near the bottom at 25.
Third, cost is a barrier to accessing care outside of government health care. Aside from a family doctor (if they have one), the closest most people will get to any type of mental-health care is through a counsellor or therapist – and these cost money. More than half (57 per cent) of people aged 18 to 24 who had early signs of a mental illness said that cost was an obstacle to getting care.
No wonder the CMHA declares that mental-health care in Canada “is a privilege. It should be a right.”
The problem is not only with young people. It is estimated that 2.5 million people (almost the populations of Manitoba and Saskatchewan combined) are not getting adequate mental-health care. The opioid crisis, addictions, homelessness, crime, and a lack of beds for the seriously ill all initiate and exacerbate mental illness. Even ingesting Mr. Trudeau’s ‘harmless’ marijuana has been shown to increase the risk of psychosis in teens dramatically.
Kudos to Bell for continuing to support awareness and programs for the mentally ill. The resulting conversations may trigger the desire to get help, but getting care remains elusive. As such, Bell’s annual campaign serves as a sober reminder that we have so little to offer those who suffer from mental illness. Maybe it is time to talk about that.
Susan Martinuk is a Senior Fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and author of Patients at Risk: Exposing Canada’s Health-care Crisis.
Read next: Mental Health: The Missing Pillar in Universal Health Care
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