Colleagues, today I want to talk about an issue that matters very much to me, both personally and professionally, namely, the importance of parity between physical and psychological health care. I also want to draw your attention to the efforts of the Our Kids’ Health network, an initiative that is moving us toward parity and equity.

When I speak about mental health, substance abuse and addiction parity, this is inclusive of esteem and equity. This is an issue that Canadians care about. Indeed, the Canadian Mental Health Association reports that by the age of 40 years 50% of Canadians will experience a mental illness, and 70% of mental health disorders start in childhood.

A recent poll found that timely access to publicly funded mental health services is important to 90% of Canadians, and more than 8 in 10 Canadians strongly support the concept of mental health parity. However, Canada only spends 7% to 9% of health care dollars on mental health, while in countries like the U.K. it is 13%.

As you know, the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare inequities and challenges in our society. According to Dr. Ripudaman Minhas, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Toronto, the new president of the Pediatricians Alliance of Ontario and project lead of Our Kids’ Health network, Indigenous people, Black and racialized Canadians experienced isolation and distress and had diminished access to evidence-based supports and networks. By recognizing the gap in existing resources, his team launched Punjabi Kids’ Health in 2021.

With support from the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2022, Our Kids’ Health, or OKH, expanded their initiative by introducing nine additional channels — Arabic, Black, Cantonese, Filipino, Hispanic, Inuit, Mandarin, Punjabi, Tamil and Ukrainian — forming Our Kids’ Health Network at Unity Health Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, with engagement from the World Health Organization’s digital health innovation branch. OKH is now a global social-media-based health initiative that offers accessible, reliable and relevant child health information, including mental health information, to families of diverse backgrounds.

Supporting initiatives like these battles misinformation and disinformation, improves health equity and parity and ensures that no one is left behind. It underscores the saying that there is no health without mental health.

Finally, colleagues, I am convinced that when we truly put our minds, talents and resources together, there is no problem we can’t solve. Innovative solutions such as Our Kids’ Health Network connect the dots and point the way to achieving parity of esteem and equity in our health care systems.

Thank you, meegwetch.