Honourable senators, I rise to bring attention to Mental Illness Awareness Week taking place October 4 to 10.

Awareness is good, but it is not enough. We must do better. We must move beyond awareness and increase our mental health literacy with the goal of improving rapid access to effective mental health care for all Canadians in need.

Let us also now recognize the hard work that many Canadian educators have done to effectively improve mental health literacy in schools and for their commitment to supporting the mental health of our students as schools have reopened across this country.

Research conducted in Canada highlights poor levels of mental health literacy in our population. For example, people often use the term “mental health” when they mean mental illness. People often confuse normal, existential distress with having a mental illness or indicating that they are not mentally healthy.

Mental health is not about feeling good all the time. It is about learning the skills needed to adapt to the challenges and opportunities that life brings us. Sometimes that learning is painful, but it is normal. We don’t need treatment for feeling upset. We need the support of our loved ones and our communities.

We must also remember that having a mental illness does not mean people do not have good mental health. On the contrary, the skills that a person who is living with a mental illness often develops to cope with it gives them additional resilience, better mental health.

In Canada, mental illness affects between 15 and 20% of the population. Like all chronic diseases, they increase the risk of a wide variety of negative outcomes: socially, vocationally and interpersonally. They increase risk for other illnesses, such as diabetes and heart disease. They increase risk for early mortality and are the primary risk factor for death by suicide.

Mental illnesses start in the first quarter of the life cycle. Most can actually be diagnosed before age 25. Knowing this, it is essential that everyone who has a mental illness be identified early and that the pathway to effective, evidence-based care is barrier-free.

Honourable senators, I encourage us all to pledge not just to be aware, but to become mental health literate and to work to ensure that all Canadians, regardless of wealth, race, creed, colour, belief or place of residence can equally access the best available based treatments for mental illness if and when they need to. Thank you.