Health Insurance Strategic Forum

Speech for

The Honourable Tony Clement Minister of Health and Minister for FedNor

Health Insurance Strategic Forum

September 28, 2007 Alton, Ontario

Check against delivery.

Good morning and thank you for your kind introduction.

Thank you to the Northwind Professional Institute for organizing this forum, and I would like to especially thank Shelley Battram (President of the Northwind Professional Institute) for inviting me to speak to you today.

It is an honour to be here, and I am very much looking forward to today's discussions regarding mental health in the workplace and society.

I am pleased to be here to talk to you about the ways in which mental illness impacts our country, and more specifically, our country's economy.

In the past, most people who suffered from mental illnesses kept their struggles hidden... And with good reason.

Many individuals with mental illness in Canada faced tremendous barriers and challenge, experiencing confusion and frustration over how and where to find help.

Several experienced a lack of compassion and poor treatment from health professionals.

The experience of stigma and discrimination resulted in many affected individuals choosing to hide their problems.

Quite simply, it was an illness that people didn't want to talk or hear about.

We have come a long way from the primitive diagnoses and barbaric treatments of the past.

Just last month, on August 31, our government reaffirmed our commitment to improving mental health in our country when Prime Minister Stephen Harper officially launched the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Supported by a Budget 2007 investment of $55 million over the next five years, the Commission's mandate and structure reflect the recommendations contained in the 2006 Standing Senate Committee report on mental health, mental illness, and addiction in Canada.

The Commission will be the national focal point for addressing mental health issues and concerns. The Commission's primary objective will be to move forward with the provinces and territories, individuals and health care groups across the country in developing a national mental health strategy.

We see mental health, mental health disorders and mental illness everywhere. Among the homeless on our street, in our workplaces among co-workers felled by stress, in our families.

It is estimated that one in five Canadians will develop some kind of mental illness in his or her lifetime, ranging anywhere from anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia, to personality and eating disorders.

I am certain that many of us here today have had a family member, friend, or loved one who has been affected by a mental illness. Some of us may have even experienced a mental illness ourselves.

And mental illness in First Nations and Inuit communities is no less prominent. In fact, nearly one-third of First Nation adults have experienced a time when they felt sad, blue or depressed for two weeks or more in a row- a major sign of depression.

It is clear that mental illness can have a devastating impact on those suffering as well as their loved ones.

What many Canadians do not realize, however, is the impact that mental illness has not only on patients and their families, but also on our workplaces, and the Canadian economy.

And it is in the workplace that the economic dimensions of mental health and mental illness come together.

Many Canadians blame the hectic pace of modern life and heavy stresses in the workplace as the cause of their mental illness.

With over 2 million Canadians plagued with a severe or persistent mental health disorder today, it is no surprise that workplace productivity in our country is affected.

In fact, lost productivity from a mental illness is estimated to cost Canadian businesses $33 billion per year, according to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. This corresponds to one out of every five dollars of profit for all Canadian companies. This is almost as much as Ontario spends on healthcare every year.

Mental illness is also the fastest-growing category of disability insurance claims, accounting for up to a third of claims and about 70% (23 billion) of the total cost on Canadian businesses.

And mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety disorders and substance abuse are concentrated amongst men and women in their prime working years, in other words, the core of our working population.

Mental disorders, therefore, impair the capacity of a significant segment of our population to contribute to the economy.

It is also the leading cause of absenteeism in the Canadian workplace. In Canada, 20% of the normal work time of employees suffering from mental illness or addiction is not productive because it is "taken off". Absenteeism at this rate is four times the rate of unaffected co-workers.

And as many as 90% of individuals living with serious mental illness are unemployed.

Of course, high unemployment rates among the mentally ill lead to other economic burdens across the nation, such as: higher dependencies on income security programs for survival, increased hospitalization time, and an increased use of drugs and other illicit substances - all issues our country is trying to deter and control.

So, Canada's New Government recognized that in order to address the rising rates of mental illness and the associated social and economic costs required a multi-pronged approach was required, which would include the promotion of positive mental health.

And now, with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, there is reason for optimism.

The Commission will promote positive mental health, while working to eliminate mental illness cases across the country- and improve the burdensome impact mental illness has on Canada's economy.

I also firmly believe that the Commission will ensure that Canadians, in all parts of the country, will have access to the best mental health promotion, mental illness prevention, diagnosis and treatment practices that Canada has to offer.

Mental health is just as important to personal well-being as physical health- and the health of the Canadian economy depends on the health and well-being of Canadians.

Thank you.