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Results: 91 - 105 of 1662
Rick Lundy
View Rick Lundy Profile
Rick Lundy
2021-04-26 11:11
Thank you very much for having me today.
I'm here representing four different organizations. I'm the general manager of Huntington Hills Community Association. I'm president and founder of Minds Over Matter mental health society. I am founder of Open Arms patient advocacy society, and I'm the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Calgary.
The first area I would like to talk about is in the community, and that's with Huntington Hills. We at Huntington Hills are an outlet for many human service areas—we were up until recently. We had a lone parent network, a parent link and a north central resource centre for all of the north of Calgary. In these programs we help families, especially single parents, find the resources they need and to get tools and go through programs to be the best parents they possibly can. For homelessness, homeless and low-income individuals in northwest Calgary, we help them get the resources they need for the basics of life. We also have a school care program here, so we deal with a lot of the little ones in society as well.
Our mental health organization is called Minds over Matter mental health. We deal with seniors, cultural groups, businesses and organizations and children and youth.
I am the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and I have been for the last couple of years. We bring awareness to drinking and driving as well as preventative measures to stop or slow down impaired driving and victim assistance for those individuals who have been affected by drinking and driving as well.
Looking at what COVID has done in the community, here at the community association we deliver food and basics to single moms and seniors. I've had first-hand experience dealing with seniors. The thing I can say first and foremost is that many seniors have talked as I'm delivering their food—because I've done it myself—of the fear of not knowing how they're going to get their next meal and the fear of not knowing how or when they're going to get the resources they need to survive. A lot of these seniors don't have any other family or friends to do it. They're relying on a community association to deliver food.
The second thing is the lack of resources. In dealing with these three human resources that we did, the biggest problem was connecting people with food banks. I had one individual come in, and he was from Africa, just new to the country, and he had no food or diapers for his family. We had to try to find resources for him. Unfortunately, during COVID, those resources weren't even open. He phoned me back and he commented on the fact that he left messages at the numbers we had given him, and nobody got back to him. There was a huge concern, not only about getting individuals these resources but also the accessibility wasn't there. There was a lot of fear in those individuals as well.
Going into the mental health organization dealing with seniors, my specialty is seniors within this organization. In talking to these seniors, I know there is a fear of COVID. They're in the last years of their lives. They've been isolated. The isolation for seniors has been a huge problem as well. Pre-COVID, 6.2 million Canadians suffered from mental illness in this country. The numbers going forward will be staggering as will accessibility, because the biggest problem in mental illness is the lack of accessibility within mental health and mental illness.
In regard to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, you would think, with all the restrictions that government has put in place, that impaired driving would be substantially down. It is a bit down, but it's insignificant. Alcohol consumption and cannabis consumption during COVID is on the rise. We work with the Calgary Police Service, and the concern post-COVID is going to be impaired driving, because people have been sitting in their houses. That's going to be a bigger problem than it was before.
People are still drinking, and people are still driving. The amount of alcohol and cannabis consumption has actually increased. We just had a case last week of a 38-year-old who was drinking and driving and killed somebody. We're very concerned about where this is going.
Looking at the problems in the community, they're vast. We're an organization that knows the resources and understands the system, and we're having trouble accessing the system to get help for people in all the capacities that I mentioned earlier.
COVID has been devastating to this community, the community of Huntington Hills, which is in northwest Calgary. It's been devastating in terms of the mental health and mental illness that we're seeing, and I just don't know where this is going.
We had an economy that was challenged. Then we had COVID, and the accessibility of getting mental health resources for anybody—children, youth, seniors, single parents—is horrific. I feel very badly for individuals who are trying to get that help because it's just not accessible.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
View John Barlow Profile
CPC (AB)
View John Barlow Profile
2021-04-26 12:30
You bring up my next question. I talked about this on Friday. I had a young girl in my riding call me in tears about her brother who had committed suicide. I had another one yesterday. A 29-year-old young man in my riding committed suicide yesterday. These are becoming all too common.
When speaking with some of the artists—Mariya Stokes and Lyndsay Butler in my riding—you can tell what stress is on these young artists and what anxiety there is. Maybe you can touch on that a bit. What has been the mental health aspect of seeing your entire industry and your entire livelihood, everything you've worked for, come to a screeching halt, with no light at the end of the tunnel as we continue to see lockdowns and restrictions?
George Canyon
View George Canyon Profile
George Canyon
2021-04-26 12:30
As a Canadian citizen and a very proud Canadian—one million per cent Canadian through and through—one of the things that most disappoints me is that we didn't take a deep breath and look at what could be a huge travesty for our mental health, especially when mental health is first and foremost in the minds of most Canadians. In our industry, especially right now, because we have not recovered in the slightest—not 0.001%, not at all—mental health is a huge issue.
Just in talking to my team, which I try to maintain contact with to make sure that everybody is good, I see that everyone is trying to hold their head up and put a smile on—albeit fake. This is what we do in our industry. We're in the industry of hearing no. I've heard “no” so many times that I just kind of expect it now. When you're an artist and you're trying to get record deals or you're trying to get gigs and you're trying to climb that corporate ladder....
Right now, though, the artists I've talked with as of late, they just feel lost. It's not so much the artist in me. It's my family who made the sacrifice for us to get to where we are today after 30 years—my wife and my children. The sacrifices they've made, not just with my wife having to work three jobs at one time so I could play on the weekends, but with my children not having their dad there for the first day of school, not having their dad there when they learned how to ride a bicycle.... All those things add up to mental health, and now, seeing their dad just not being able to work at what they have been a really big part of my success in....
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Hello to my colleagues, and a warm welcome to our witnesses, a Cape Breton—Canso welcome.
My questions are going to be directed to Mr. Grant.
First and foremost, Mr. Grant, I consider you and your organization an expert on youth and youth programming.
For many years in the first part of my career, I worked with a gentleman by the name of Gordie Gosse, and Gordie was a great man. He passed in 2019. He worked in Whitney Pier as the youth programmer in Whitney Pier and later went on to become an NDP cabinet minister in the provincial government. I learned so much from him in terms of the importance of programming and the importance of community engagement.
This year, Mr. Grant, Canadians have made great sacrifices and, in particular, youth and children have given up, as you say, going to school with its going online, spending time with friends and really getting the most out of their adolescence and childhood. Public health measures in every province are implemented by public health officers, and they're important, but we do need more and varied supports, as you mentioned.
In particular, you hit upon something I think is really important, and that's the mental health amongst youth. They are already, I think you would agree, at a higher risk even without a global pandemic being thrown into the mix.
I'm wondering if you could tell me and tell the committee how important it is for children and youth in these times to have access to platforms like Wellness Together Canada, launched by our government, or the Kids Help Phone.
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:34
As we know, in being homeless, there's a high level of anxiety and a high degree of stress and addictions that come with that, and this is pre-pandemic, so adding the notion of a pandemic exacerbates an already challenging situation.
The need for the services you mentioned, the Kids Help Phone, etc., is critical during both times, and we've seen just with 310-COPE here in York region and the Canadian Mental Health Association, all of those organizations—
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:36
Okay.
As we know, pre-COVID, pre-pandemic, the need for mental health services for a homeless population was high to begin with. We know from research it is one of the challenges, whether it's a cause or an effect of being homeless. The Kids Help Phone services, the Canadian Mental Health Association services, 310-COPE and all those things were important pre-COVID, and then you add a pandemic, with a whole bunch of uncertainty for these young people. They've already experienced uncertainties in their lives and this just further exacerbates that.
One of the things it's important to note is that a lot of money does go into mental health and we've seen governments increase that funding, but we find many of those services are not accessible for a homeless population, for different reasons.
Sometimes with a youth population the definition of “youth” is different. For provincial services, it can be ages 16 to 24. For federal services, it's 14 to 29, and for some health services, it's to 18. Even from just an age demographic, it's hard to access some of those services. Then you have the unavailability of psychiatric care and psychiatrists who are able to diagnose, and follow-up support.
What we find is that homeless young people are even more marginalized in accessing the services and funding that goes into mental health, which is why the need for very specific services for this population is so important.
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
It's interesting you highlighted how the challenges are integrated, and so must be the solutions.
I was doing some research on your organization and I see you offer a large suite of programming. I'm just curious. Which of your programs has been the most popular as we navigate through this pandemic, and why do you think it is the case?
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:39
I'm not sure “popular” is the right word, but certainly—
View Mike Kelloway Profile
Lib. (NS)
“More utilized” would probably be better.
Clovis Grant
View Clovis Grant Profile
Clovis Grant
2021-04-26 12:39
Yes. For sure, it's our mental health supports. As I mentioned, we saw a fivefold increase in the number of youth accessing mental health services. Pre-COVID, we were serving over 1,200 youth in our drop-in programs, but that number decreased. Therefore, you could maybe show a correlation between the lack of access to services adding to an increase in the need for a number of mental health services.
However, to answer your question, it is the need for mental health services that increased.
Rebecca Shields
View Rebecca Shields Profile
Rebecca Shields
2021-04-23 13:00
Thank you so much. It's an honour to be here with the honourable members of Parliament and my colleagues.
I'm going to get to the point and speak very honestly about what I believe are the top recommendations you know from the news, that mental health is an emerging crisis, but I really want to talk about what you need to think about.
In the proposed federal budget, you've looked at investing critical money into mental health services, particularly looking at vulnerable populations and our essential workers. I want to really emphasize two things. You have to invest today in the hot spots; you can't go across Canada. You have to look where it's proportionate, invest directly, and think about those communities. If COVID has taught us anything, it's that, if we aren't looking at the communities that are already impacted, then it's going to explode. The fourth wave will be a mental health wave, and we know from the data from past pandemics that those essential and frontline care workers are facing PTSD, and, for those people who are impacted by PTSD, they're 40% more likely to experience major depression and at more risk of suicide. These are the people who are saving lives today, and we need to be planning for the future.
My second recommendation is around how we plan for the future. It's great that you're using well-known, renowned hospitals and research centres, but the investments have to be in local community organizations that are trusted and have built comprehensive relationships with those communities where there are vulnerable people. When you look at the disproportionate effect of the COVID pandemic on marginalized individuals and BIPOC people, we need to look at those community agencies. Why? It's because those community agencies are the ones that provide the wraparound supports where people are vulnerable. Although you might want to do large Canadian institutions, you need to get the money on the ground so that it can be realized quickly for those individuals, because otherwise their vulnerabilities are only going to increase, which is what we have seen currently in the response to the pandemic in some communities.
My last point is that we have an emerging issue around substance abuse, particularly alcohol and cannabis. We know from the data that, for people who are using cannabis, over 50% report they are using more, and there is more binge drinking in other populations, particularly populations who have children at home, so binge drinking is going up.
My third recommendation, therefore, is that you need to have a public health approach to reducing the use of alcohol and cannabis. Look, I'm in mental health and addiction, and I'm telling you people are using more, and the long-term consequences of using more are that it's going to be harder to treat people as this pandemic continues to go on. We need to use the Public Health Agency of Canada to begin talking about that message to help people reduce the amount that they are consuming.
The Canadian Mental Health Association has done a lot of research through Pollara on the mental health impacts. It is disproportionate, as you know, for women and for women with children. Rates of anxiety are going up, and rates of loneliness are increasing for women. Now one in four women are reporting great anxiety compared with one in five men. It's still not great, but particularly for women with children, we're also seeing increasing rates of loneliness, particularly in the young people 18 to 39 years old. We're seeing also the impacts of social isolation and loneliness on our seniors. More and more, these impacts of loneliness, depression and anxiety are increasing, and people are feeling worse off. People are feeling less hopeful than they ever have; in fact, 80% of Canadians report that they no longer feel that their health is improving.
I will say that there are some good news points in here. People are feeling like they know how to access care, although they are very concerned about wait-lists and whether or not, if they access care, they're going to receive it. We need to make sure that those targeted investments are made so that there is easy access to quick supports.
One support we have in Ontario is the BounceBack program that's funded through the Ministry of Health. This is telephone-based cognitive behaviour therapy specifically designed to ease stress, worry, depression and anxiety. We're trying to promote programs like that to go across Canada. These types of services to help people manage and cope are going to be essential for the broad population.
I want to go back in my six minutes, which is getting less now, to what I really want to emphasize again. I want to talk about post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly in our health care workers and our frontline workers. It has a disproportionate effect on our nurses and hospital staff, our paramedics, our police, our long-term care homes, our home and community health nurses, and all of the staff that are working in congregate care settings. If this is a strain on the population now, it's going to have an impact on our other health services for Canadians. What we're seeing is that those people are beginning to suffer, and burnout is on the rise. If this happens, we are going to have a strain on our health care system. Again I want to urge you to look at those investments and at how we can invest properly.
Further to my recommendations, in my last few minutes I want to talk about trusted community relationships again.
I'm sorry, but I don't know what the yellow card means. Is that one minute left?
Rebecca Shields
View Rebecca Shields Profile
Rebecca Shields
2021-04-23 13:06
I'll wrap up with a final point about about improving access to virtual care through technology. We know that virtual mental health services are making a difference, but there's an equity-of-access issue. If we can't provide equity of access to those vulnerable, BIPOC, and multi-generational populations, we're not going to be able to provide timely care, and the crisis will grow.
Thank you very much.
View John Barlow Profile
CPC (AB)
View John Barlow Profile
2021-04-23 13:25
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for everyone's testimony today.
I want to start with you, Ms. Shields. It's good to see you again.
I had a phone conversation a couple of days ago with a constituent who called. It was a 19-year-old girl who was very upset. Her 20-year-old brother had committed suicide a few weeks ago. He was an apprenticing electrician who was laid off as a result of lockdowns. He had found a job in a restaurant, but lost that when lockdowns were extended. The isolation got the best of him. He couldn't handle the depression and he took his life.
I know that many of us in this Zoom meeting, as members, have had similar conversations with constituents. This is becoming an all-too-common occurrence with many of us—having these types of calls to our offices from people who are completely distraught. This suicide has certainly devastated this family.
I had a virtual town hall with a lot of business owners and community leaders with similar stories of depression, anxiety and suicides.
We spoke late last year. You were mentioning a recent study in December that showed that 40% of Canadians had said their mental health had deteriorated. We saw the numbers of the substance abuse and suicides up. That was in December.
You've talked about a mental health third and fourth wave. I've never heard it put that way, but that's very disconcerting. As these lockdowns and restrictions go on, what do you anticipate the impact is going to be on Canadians' mental health?
Rebecca Shields
View Rebecca Shields Profile
Rebecca Shields
2021-04-23 13:27
We know from previous pandemics that it is going to increase. Let me explain the why of that. You're right in the sense that uncertainty and vulnerability are disproportionately impacting people. For example, communities that have precarious employment just like that.... I'm so sorry about that young individual. That economic stress and uncertainty can obviously lead to depression, anxiety and, of course, the risk of suicide. That's going to happen. We know that from past pandemics. We saw that from SARS. We saw that there are populations that are at a higher risk than others.
That's what I was trying to get at, the people who are at high risk. They are essential care workers, whether it's our hospital staff or the people who have been on the front lines. They are the people who have been impacted by COVID, and are absolutely at high risk. There are communities that have been highly impacted by COVID. I mentioned BIPOC people, so people who are precariously employed or have lost employment, or on the front lines, or who have suffered from COVID are at risk.
There is a general increase in anxiety and depression. Women, women with children, families with children, they are all tending to have higher levels of anxiety. We also have youth, and people have been touching on that. My colleague, Mr. Mitchell, was touching on the impact to young people, and the increase in anxiety.
What is that looking like in terms of impacts of social isolation? When social isolation becomes loneliness, that turns into chronic loneliness. When we get into chronic loneliness, that's where we have outcomes that are the equivalent of smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and my cancer colleagues will understand how serious that is.
So, you're right. This is what we are preparing for, which is the fourth wave. What are we trying to do? We're trying to increase immediate access to care, but we have to do it in two formats. First and foremost, we need to be planning and training early. I need people on the ground today, so that they're there tomorrow. I can't wait. We can't wait to have trained workers in language or cultural-specific communities available for people, because if they have to wait, the risk of suicide increases.
What we know, and it's really important to understand, is that somebody could go into a hospital and be discharged. The most at-risk period for suicide is that 30-day period following discharge from a hospital. We must have programs that are available right away to transition people, and that's where you need to bolster the communities. You need trusted community partners that can begin to wrap around supports for these individuals.
Organizations like ours provide counselling, employment, housing and food security. When you look at what we can do in terms of supporting navigation and community supports, we have to work with our hospitals and our acute care centres to stabilize people, but then we have to provide that ongoing care in transition. I know I'm talking to people who know and understand this.
You've got the national suicide prevention strategy starting. It's going to take a while, but my recommendation is that the $50 million investment has to come in immediately, and you've got to put it into the communities that are hardest hit.
View John Barlow Profile
CPC (AB)
View John Barlow Profile
2021-04-23 13:31
I want to build on what you said about having people on the ground immediately. I'm sure you're talking about the PTSD within frontline health care workers. How frustrating is it for them not having...? What I've heard is the concern about stops and starts: We're going to have vaccines; we're not going to have vaccines; we're going to have rapid tests; we're not going to have rapid tests.
How much of an impact has that had on the mental health of health care workers, of not having more of a clear path to accessing vaccines and rapid tests?
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