Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (39th Parliament, 1st Session)

That the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology be authorized to examine and report on issues arising from, and developments since, the tabling of its final report on the state of the health care system in Canada in October 2002. In particular, the Committee shall be authorized to examine issues concerning mental health and mental illness.

That the papers and evidence received and taken by the Committee on the study of mental health and mental illness in Canada in the Thirty-seventh Parliament be referred to the Committee; and

That the Committee submit its final report no later than December 16, 2005 and that the Committee retain all powers necessary to publicize the findings of the Committee until March 31, 2006.

The question being put on the motion, it was adopted.

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Extract from the Journals of the Senate for Thursday, October 20, 2005:

The Honourable Senator Kirby moved, seconded by the Honourable Senator Pépin:

That, notwithstanding the Order of the Senate adopted on Thursday, October 7, 2004, the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, which was authorized to examine and report on issues arising from, and development since, the tabling of its final report on the state of the health care system in Canada in October 2002 (mental health and mental illness), be empowered to present its final report no later than June 30, 2006, and that the Committee retain all powers necessary to publicize the findings of the Committee contained in the final report until October 31, 2006; and

That the Committee be permitted, notwithstanding usual practices, to deposit any report with the Clerk of the Senate, if the Senate is not then sitting; and that the report be deemed to have been tabled in the Chamber.

After debate,

The question being put on the motion, it was adopted.

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Extract from the Journals of the Senate of Tuesday, April 25, 2006:

The Honourable Senator Keon moved, seconded by the Honourable Senator Stratton:

That the papers and evidence received and taken by the Committee on the study of mental health and mental illness in Canada in the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Parliaments be referred to the Committee;

That the Committee submit its final report no later than June 30, 2006 and that the Committee retain all powers necessary to publicize the findings of the Committee until September 30, 2006; and

Paul C. Bélisle

Clerk of the Senate

SENATORS

The following Senators have participated in the study on mental health and mental illness of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology:

The Honourable Michael J. L. Kirby, Chair of the Committee

The Honourable Wilbert Joseph Keon, Deputy Chair of the Committee

The Honourable Senators:

Catherine S. Callbeck

Andrée Champagne

Ethel M. Cochrane

Joan Cook

Jane Mary Cordy

Art Eggleton

Joyce Fairbairn, P.C.

J. Michael Forrestall

Aurélien Gill

Marjory LeBreton

Viola Léger (retired)

Yves Morin (retired)

Lucie Pépin

Brenda Robertson (retired)

Marilyn Trenholme Counsell

Ex-officio members of the Committee:

The Honourable Senators: Jack Austin P.C. or (William Rompkey) and Noёl A. Kinsella

or (Terrance Stratton)

Other Senators who have participated from time to time on this study:

The Honourable Senators Di Nino, Dyck, Johnson, Kinsella, Lynch-Staunton, Mercer, Milne, Murray, Pearson, St.Germain, Stratton and Tardif.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The Committee wants to publicly acknowledge the enormous assistance it has received during the past two years from those who have worked so hard in helping the Committee to produce its reports on Mental Health, Mental Illness and Addiction.

In particular, the Committee wants to express its deep appreciation to the following people:

Dr. Howard Chodos and Mr. Tim Riordan Raaflaub of Parliamentary Information and Research Service, the full-time research staff of the Committee, have been deeply involved in all drafts of the reports that the Committee produced during this study. Mrs. Odette Madore was a key researcher on our first three reports on Mental Health and Dr. Nancy Miller Chenier was heavily involved in this final volume. The Committee is also grateful to the numerous other researchers from the Parliamentary Information and Research Service who worked on many of the individual chapters in this report. Without all their extraordinary help and commitment these reports would not have been completed in such a short time, nor in such a competent manner.

Josée Thérien, the Committee Clerk and her assistant, Louise Pronovost, were responsible for organizing all the meetings the Committee held on Mental Health, Mental Illness and Addiction, including scheduling the appearances of all the witnesses, for overseeing the translation and printing of all the reports, and for responding to thousands of requests for information about the Committee’s work and for copies of the Committee’s reports.

Dr. Duncan Sinclair, the former chair of the Health Services Restructuring Commission of Ontario, who without failure, gave generously of his time. His expertise, support and advice was welcomed and appreciated throughout the Committee’s study.

We also want to thank the staff of each of the members of the Committee, who have had to endure a substantially increased work load over the past two years.

Thanks is also owed to Steve Lurie, for his extraordinary assistance on many of the technical aspects and cost estimates used in the report.

Also to Dr. David Goldbloom for his wise advice and counsel.

The Committee is indebted to Sheryl Pedersen, author of “Emmy’s Story,” which comprises the epilogue of this report.

To all of these people, we express our heartfelt thanks for a job very well done.

The Committee worked long hours over many months, requiring the services of a large number of procedural, research and administrative officers, editors, reporters, interpreters, translators, messengers, publications, broadcasting, printing, technical and logistical staff who ensured the progress of the work and reports of the Committee. We wish to extend our appreciation for their efficiency and hard work.

FOREWORD

In More for the Mind, a study of psychiatric services in Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Association said:

In no other field, except perhaps leprosy, has there been as much confusion, misdirection and discrimination against the patient, as in mental illness… Down through the ages, they have been estranged by society and cast out to wander in the wilderness. Mental illness, even today, is all too often considered a crime to be punished, a sin to be expiated, a possessing demon to be exorcised, a disgrace to be hushed up, a personality weakness to be deplored or a welfare problem to be handled as cheaply as possible.[1]

These words were written nearly half a century ago. Yet the more than two thousand personal stories submitted to the Standing Senate Committee on Social affairs, Science and Technology by Canadians living with mental illness, and their families, make clear that these words continue to ring true.

It was difficult emotionally for Committee members to hear these stories. Listening to them, and reading them, had a profound effect on every one of us. As the months passed, they began to tear at our souls.

Committee members could relate to these stories because of their own personal experiences. Like any group of a dozen Canadians, we too have experienced the impact of mental illness in our families: a sister-in-law who has schizophrenia, a nephew who committed suicide, a daughter who battled anorexia for several years, a sister who lives with severe depression and has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals frequently; it is rare that a family has not been affected.

Indeed, it is this personal experience that has caused Committee members to regard our work on this report as much more than just another policy study: to us, it is truly a calling.

We know how difficult it will be to improve the lives of people living with mental illness. We know it will be tougher still to change deep-seated public attitudes and reduce the stigma and discrimination they face. To put each of them on the road to recovery will be an extraordinary challenge.

Yet we are optimistic that the time has come when meaningful change can, and will, be made. From coast to coast we have met politicians, government officials, mental health service providers and professionals, and many, many ordinary Canadians, who are willing to help make change a reality, to help bring people living with mental illness into the mainstream of Canadian society.

We ask the readers of this report to join with us as, together, we work to transform mental health, mental illness and addiction services in Canada and to bring mental illness Out of the Shadows at Last.

To the people of Canada, I say welcome us into society as full partners. We are not to be feared or pitied. Remember, we are your mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, your friends, co-workers and children. Join hands with us and travel together with us on our road to recovery.

Roy Muise — 9 May 2005 - Halifax[2]

[1] Canadian Mental Health Association, (1963) More for the Mind: A Study of Psychiatric Services in Canada, Toronto, p. 1.

[2] 9 May 2005, /en/Content/SEN/Committee/381/soci/15eva-e.htm?Language=E&Parl=38&Ses=1&comm_id=47.

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