Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you for the opportunity to present to this committee. My name is Fred Phelps. I'm the executive director of the Canadian Association of Social Workers. The CASW is a proud organization in the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health, better known as CAMIMH. It is on CAMIMH's behalf that I present to you today.
CAMIMH is a non-profit organization comprising 16 national health care providers as well as organizations that represent individuals with lived experience of mental illness. It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge today that both the CPA and the Mood Disorders of Canada organization are also members of the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health.
Established in 1998, the alliance provides collaborative national leadership to assure that individuals living with mental illness receive the services and supports they require for recovery. CAMIMH also advocates for government policies aimed at reducing the impact of mental illness on the Canadian population and economy, a negative impact estimated at more than $50 billion annually or almost 3% of GDP.
Our coalition's members span the entire spectrum of mental illness and care in Canada, representing patient groups and professional service provider organizations such as my own. As such, we have a unique and strong voice for the one in five Canadians living with mental illness and, more often than not, without adequate access to services to address those illnesses.
CAMIMH was exceptionally pleased with the recent announcement in Budget 2015 that the mandate and funding of Canada's Mental Health Commission would be extended for a further 10 years to 2028. The Mental Health Commission of Canada played the leading role in developing Canada’s first national mental health strategy. CAMIMH advocated for the establishment of the Mental Health Commission of Canada and has long pushed for its mandate to be extended beyond the originally funded 2017-18 timeline.
CAMIMH and its members look forward to engaging with the government, the Minister of Health and, indeed, this committee on establishing the terms and objectives for the second decade of the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s mandate. Though we all agree that there has been much talk about mental health and mental illness in recent years, which is undeniably a good thing, what is needed now is to shift from talking into action. Moving from awareness to action means investments in policy development and, yes, financial resources dedicated to ensuring these vital objectives are met.
Today I am here to present four recommendations on behalf of CAMIMH.
First, as per recommendation 3.1.1 of the national mental health strategy, we would like to see a mental health innovation fund established at the federal level in the amount of $50 million to help foster and disseminate best practices currently taking place across the country.
While we know there are many pockets of excellence when it comes to providing Canadians with access to leading-edge innovative mental health services and programs, the reality is that there's a lack of national coordination and resourcing to ensure that they spread across the health system effectively and equitably. Though the delivery of health care services is largely a provincial and territorial responsibility, CAMIMH knows there is a catalytic role for the federal government to play when accelerating and adopting those proven innovations in mental health.
Secondly, to provide the leadership on workplace mental health, we recommend that the federal government implement the Mental Health Commission of Canada's national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace—the standard—in a major federal department. In our view, the standard can play an important role in improving overall workplace health and increasing productivity.
While the standard is currently piloted by a number of public and private organizations under the auspices of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, our hope is that it will be widely adopted by public- and private-sector employers across the country. As the country's biggest employer, the federal government should lead the way. While the standard does not expressly address the needs of those working with mental illness, it does support a workplace environment in which all people can work to the best of their abilities.
Our third recommendation concerns the measurement and evaluation of mental health systems in Canada as a basis for improving quality. In the area of mental health, we need a set of system performance indicators to effectively assess and improve the performance of Canada's mental services and systems.
At present, there are no agreed-upon mental health indicators that provide a clear picture of how mental health systems are performing, particularly in terms of measures of access to and the appropriateness and outcomes of services. Additionally, where data is available, it focuses on acute care hospitals, and not community programs and services. This is unfair to people who need and receive services in communities, in the venues where many of Canadian mental health problems are most effectively treated and where, unfortunately, services are insufficiently covered by public and private health insurance plans.
While we are pleased to see that important work has been initiated in the area of mental health indicators and expenditures by the Mental Health Commission, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, work on mental health performance indicators needs to be advanced as a national priority to ensure accountability and results. CAMIMH is of the view that the federal government, working in close partnership with the provinces and territories, can play a groundbreaking role in terms of developing the national mental health performance reporting and quality improvement initiatives.
Finally, though health care delivery is constitutionally a responsibility of the provincial and territorial governments in this country, there are several large and under-serviced groups for which Ottawa is directly responsible—veterans, first nations, and RCMP members, to name a few.
Our final recommendation is to establish and implement a mental health strategy to better provide services to the populations for which the federal government has direct responsibility. Recognizing that the populations for which the federal government is responsible face unique mental health challenges and that the services currently provided are inadequate, the government has an opportunity to lead by example by providing a more robust set of mental health services to these groups, and can help demonstrate that in the long run, enhanced investment in mental health pays fiscal and economic, as well as social and human, dividends.
Our needs are great, but so are our resources. Canada is one of the most prosperous and fortunate nations on earth, yet too many of our citizens lack the mental health services they need. Increasing the availability of these services is a social and economic imperative we can no longer afford to ignore.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to any questions you may have.