Future Majority - a nonpartisan nonprofit program, created for youth by youth that is currently mobilizing across the country to bring mental-health accessibility to the forefront in advance of the next election - held a virtual event Friday to draw attention to its campaign for a better mental-health infrastructure..
They also gathered to celebrate having representatives of all four Northumberland-Peterborough South parties sign their letter of support.
With the heading Endorsement of Action on Mental Health, the letter supports Future Majority in its efforts to bring attention to the mental-health crisis in this country and its three requests:
A $2,000 Health Spending Account for mental-health care in the next 12 months
A Royal Commission on a universal health-care program, which includes investigating the disproportionately negative mental-health outcomes caused by systemic racism and poverty, and how to address it
Universal mental-health care for all Canadians
Organizer Anna (for the most part, the young participants used first names only) was delighted to collect signatures from MP Philip Lawrence (on behalf of the Conservative party), Jeff Wheeldon (representing the Green Party), Kim Rudd (former Liberal incumbent) and Beth Bellaire (NDP riding association president). While they may disagree about the best path forward, they agree on the important points.
Anna turned the floor over to the two politicians present on the Zoom event, Wheeldon and Lawrence.
“I have personal experience with mental-health issues, my family and me personally,” Wheeldon began.
“But more than that, I see the way mental health is one of those linchpin issues that affects so many different things. I'm involved in working with Transition House and, last night alone, there were two overdoses in the house.
“It's a really hard thing to deal with, and it's hardest on people who are already disadvantaged. People who are living through really unfortunate and difficult circumstances have less resilience.
“Add a pandemic on top of it, and people are just worn right out. They have no resilience left and they look for things that can help the try to get through it.”
Lawrence began his talk with a quote he once heard from Wheeldon and never forgot - “we are really only one bad decision or one series of unfortunate events away from being in a really terrible situation.”
“I agree we need additional supports, and I will be all in favour of that,” Lawrence pledged.
He was part of bringing forward the 988 initiative, where anyone in distress can dial those three numbers and be connected with the mental-health resources you need.
“However, it only will work when we have all the infrastructure behind it, which we are committed to supporting,” he said.
“Everyone in Canada struggles with some type of mental-health issue, and we all need each other's support.”
Lawrence has been touched by the desperation personally, as a young person close to him committed suicide during the pandemic.
“It's not a partisan issue. It's a Canadian, it's a human-being issue, and it's something we should all rally around.”
Those in attendance had their own stories to share, starting with Anna's.
“COVID has been hard on all of us. For me personally, I have felt more isolated than I ever have before. Now more than ever, young Canadians like me are experiencing mental-health challenges and looking for support,” she said.
“Personally I have seen one too many of my loved ones suffer, not get the resources they need and deserve.” Nathan of the Trent Durham Student Association gave the student's perspective – more need than ever, but long wait times for service that can be too costly for students on a budget.
Ryan, a Cobourg resident, experienced daily bullying from Grade 5 through 9, causing anxiety and self-esteem issues. Going to a sports camp in Huntsville gave him the leadership skills and confidence he needed – and which he is focusing on helping other young people who've been through the same thing.
If you're talking about root causes, he added, one looms very large for young people and that's social media.
“I am seeing anxiety and self-esteem issues just by what's happening on social media.
“A lot of parents are not educated in mental health, and a lot of kids are not comfortable speaking with their parents,” Ryan pointed out.
Gillian Smith, editor-in-chief of Northumberland-based Inspire Magazine, said almost every bi-monthly issue has an article that touches on mental health. As the daughter of a psychiatrist, it's something she's keenly aware of.
“I think the pandemic has exacerbated problems that were already there for a lot of people, youth especially. We would like to see better access, faster access, better crisis intervention.”
She mentioned a crisis-intervention pilot project in Toronto called the Reach Out Response Network.
“When someone is in a mental-health crisis, rather than call police, they call another number to bring in a team of mental-health professionals.
“I believe Toronto has approved it as a pilot project, which I would be glad to see in Northumberland County.”
Green Wood Coalition Executive Director David Sheffield offered a perspective from an agency involved in a very hands-on level of work.
“We exist because of folks having been marginalized by poverty, by illness. And certainly the mix of mental-health and substance use, suicide, trauma, grief and loss has really marked the community of people I have worked with over a number of years. And I have had personal experience as well.
“Some of us have the privilege of being able to get support before things become a crisis, and some of us don't.
“There's a lot of work to be done. We weren't a well society going into the pandemic. We have used up all our resilience – I'm seeing that in my staff and the folks around us we are working with day to day. I think on the road ahead, there's going to be a lot of need for this kind of work,” Sheffield predicted.
“Where we come from is a bit more community-driven, rather than institution-driven. I am really encouraging resources being directed into the community and strengthening it. Those folks who are volunteering in the community – equipping them to support the mental health of others.
“Maybe something as simple as a first-aid course. If four people on my block had taken that course, they could respond to helping others in a situation and know when certain help is needed.”
“If we are talking about prevention, we have to talk about what are the causes, what are the stresses in our society right now, like affordable housing, decriminalizing drugs, all the things that feed into mental-health issues that pile stresses on stresses on top of our lack of resilience,” Wheeldon responded.
“We need positive networks of support, but also need to look at what is it about our society that is driving people to the brink. If we can stop that, we will be farther ahead.”
Lawrence asked Wheeldon what his wish list would be. “We have been advocating for a long time for mental-health care to be integrated with the rest of the health-care system into a holistic system that addresses mental-health care as well as physical care,” Wheeldon responded. Even if that happened, he added, “we don't have resources at the scale we need, so definitely Canada needs to start scaling up.
“Where mental-health care starts is literacy so we understand what constitutes mental health. Awareness is important, but we tend to default to crisis care. We are seeing the same thing with other issues, leaving something to the point of crisis so you really only have one tool left.”
