Canada needs a mental health promotion strategy, CMHA Thunder Bay says

The Canadian Mental Health Association is marking Mental Health Week this year with the release of a policy paper calling for a national mental health promotion strategy.

Such a strategy might include funding for school and workplace programs to identify and help people at risk of mental illness while their symptoms are still mild, said Jennifer Hyslop, the chief executive officer of the CMHA in Thunder Bay, Ont.  It might also address social determinants of health such as poverty.

"We're very good at looking after the treatment components of mental health and mental illness once people get sick," she said.  "There really is very little if any funding for the prevention strategies."

"Our education and training program is solely funded on donations," she added.

When it comes to particular challenges facing northwestern Ontario, Hyslop said the region often faces funding inequities because its small population is spread out over a vast area, making it hard to provide services.

For example, she said, crisis response services are not equally available throughout the region.

"In Thunder Bay, we have established a pilot project with the Thunder Bay police, a joint mobile crisis response for responding to individuals in a mental health crisis in the community, but that does not necessarily flow out to other individuals in the northwest," she said.

Hyslop was encouraged by Monday's provincial announcement on mental health funding, she said, which includes funding for mobile crisis teams. 

"We're hopeful certainly in the north that we might see some dollars to support that type of work," she added.