QUESTION PERIOD — Health
Mental Health
May 7, 2024
My question is to the Government Representative in the Senate. This week we recognize Mental Health Week in Canada. To quote the Newfoundland and Labrador branch of Inclusion Canada, “. . . Compassion isn’t just about being kind to others, it’s about extending that same kindness to ourselves.”
The theme this year is the “. . . healing power of compassion.” Senator Gold, how is the government helping to raise awareness and decrease stigmas that are still far too common when discussing mental health in Canada?
Thank you for your question and for underlining the importance of both supporting mental health and awareness about the importance of mental health issues.
As you know, the government has invested significantly in mental health supports for Canadians. As an example, the Mental Health Promotion and Innovation Fund provides national funding to support the delivery of innovative and community-based programs in mental health promotion for infants, children and youth, for young adults and for caregivers of both children and youth. This funding helps to generate new knowledge about which programs and policies work, for whom and in what context. The aim is to address health equity, build protective factors, reduce risk factors at both individual and community levels and, of course, fundamentally address the underlying determinants of health at the population level.
Senator Gold, in February, CBC put out an article that identified eating disorders as a serious mental illness that upwards of 20,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador are currently living with. This is according to Darcie Valois, a fourth-year doctoral student in clinical psychology at Memorial University. How is the federal government working with provinces such as mine on this serious, widespread issue?
Thank you. It is a serious problem that affects the health and welfare of far too many Canadians, and it is a growing number. That’s why Budget 2024 proposes to provide half a billion dollars over five years, starting this year, for the creation of a new youth mental health fund which will help younger Canadians access the mental health care that they need, and this will help community health organizations provide more care and information about that care.
