Thank you, minister, for being here today.

My question concerns concurrent disorders, which, as you know, is a condition when someone has both a mental illness and substance abuse. At least 20% of people experiencing mental illness also use substances. Similarly, people with addictions are three times more likely to suffer from mental illness than people in the general population. An integrated treatment approach is known to be an effective way to treat concurrent disorders. When the social determinants of health, such as access to supportive housing, are addressed, success in treatment is much better and relapse is less.

Mental illnesses and substance use disorders are more prevalent among people experiencing homelessness and inmates than among the general population. Improving access to appropriate services and supports for these individuals requires interjurisdictional collaboration.

My question is this: How is your department —

Thank you, senator, for the question.

Late last year, we announced the renewal of the Canadian Drugs and Substances Strategy, or CDSS. We felt the need for the renewal of the strategy because we knew that we needed to take a more holistic and integrated approach in how we address those who use substances and meet them where they’re at. That required us to expand the scope of our work with 15 different departments to make sure that officials are working across lines to line up policy with our actions and implementation, whether it is addressing housing, community services — the list goes on.

I like to say that we’re in the phase of what I call the Canada model. I presented it as such at the United Nations drug commission last week in Vienna. We’re in a unique crisis here in North America with the opioid crisis, and we have a robust set of tools at the federal level that we have been implementing. We have data for it, which many other jurisdictions want to know about.

What I can say is that we know the best way to address those with complex needs is to have full wraparound services and supports that includes housing, psychiatric assessment and social services.

Are the provinces involved in these discussions in terms of bringing the plans to their own jurisdictions?

Absolutely. As mentioned previously, as Minister of Mental Health at the federal jurisdictional level, I asked my colleagues if they would be willing to meet quarterly. We’re all very busy. However, we have made that commitment. We have had two meetings so far since our meeting in Charlottetown in October, and the discussions continue. We talk about how they can work with their local municipalities on public health aspects, safe consumption sites and also municipal housing proposals to the federal government to ensure that complex housing is part of the proposal they put forward to us. This is how the work is done.