Mental Health

Mental Health Supports in Canada: Not yet where it should be

By Avery Fry 

Every year, thousands of Canadians are affected by a mental illness themselves or know someone who is struggling with their mental health. According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, one in five Canadians experience a mental illness in any given year, and by the time someone reaches 40 years of age, one in two will have - or have had - a mental illness. 

While access to support for mental health is improving, it’s still not where it needs to be, says Mikayla Franczak, a second-year clinical psychology student at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay Ontario. “Mental health professions and access to services have increased. However, it never seems to be enough. More diagnoses and mental health struggles continue to arise.”

According to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, one-third of Canadians aged 15 or older who report having a need for mental health care say those needs were not fully met. Krys Montgomery, a 19-year-old former college student, who suffers from anxiety and bipolar depression, says they struggled to find the help they needed after reaching out to multiple mental health resources. “I tried a few times but it never really worked out for me. A lot of them didn’t really listen to me and kind of brushed me off. From here’s a medication that won’t work for you - but try it anyway - to yes we’ll contact you eventually about seeing a psychiatrist but then never contacting me back.”.

Studies also indicate that post-secondary Canadian students now are more likely to develop a mental illness that can impact their daily life. According to a study carried out by BMC Public Health, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal, 2013 to 2019 saw an increasing number of mental health disorders in post-secondary. In 2019 about 40 per cent of students reported being diagnosed with a mental illness (e.g., depression, anxiety, bipolar). 

“It affects me quite a bit,” says Montgomery. “It makes everything - even the simplest of tasks impossible at some points because I wouldn’t have the motivation to even get out of bed… or I would have too much anxiety to even leave my house.”  

If left untreated, a mental illness can have an impact not only on someone’s mental health but on many other aspects of their lives. Franczak says that untreated mental health can affect more than just the mind. “Untreated, mental illness can begin to seep in and negatively affect all the other aspects of health: physical health (like exercising too little or too much), social health (like poor balance of work, play, or rest), emotional health (for example pushing emotions away or holding onto them too tightly) or relational health (like damaging your relationships with loved ones).

“With treatment, hopefully, our functioning improves,” says Franczak.   

To help fund mental health resources, the Canadian government announced in 2022 that through the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF),  they are investing $46.3 million to promote mental health among children, youth, and their caregivers between 2019 and 2029. 

Smruthi Venkateshan, a clinical psychology student at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay Ontario believes that the stigma around mental health is gradually reducing, albeit “I think the stigma is dissipating, although quite slowly, and I think with each generation of children, we are getting better at educating them about mental health and illness.”

As we mentioned, mental health is a global issue, and it's on the rise. Explore the mental health statistics for Kenya on the right in the infographic.