CIHI survey on mental health and substance use access to services

[LChoy]

Hello CP

My organization and I are working on 2 national indicators that measure access to mental health and substance use services. Understanding more about how individuals use mental health and substance use services is an important part of accelerating improvements in this sector of our health systems.

Recently we launched an online survey to help us fill key information gaps in this space, and fulfill our mandate to the Federal, Provincial, and Territorial Health Ministers as part of the Shared Heath Priorities program of work.

We’re looking to hear from Canadian from all walks of life, but especially youth and young adults (Age 12 and up) which is a demographic that's really hard to survey but is also greatly affected by these issues.

The survey is being advertised on social media but the direct link to the survey is also included

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Facebook

https://cihi.malatest.net/

There is also a prize draw for survey participants.

If you have any questions about the survey, please reach out to indicators@cihi.ca. More details about the SHP program of work can be found here.

Thank you for your help

LChoy

[BlackArcher101]

I tried to do it, but I find it odd that a survey that is measuring access to mental health will not let you complete it if you have not accessed help in the last 12 months.

Would you not want to know if someone was perhaps trying to access, or had issues accessing and were not able to find help in those 12 months? That seems like the target people if you are trying to measure accessibility for mental health, as that would imply that's where the system has failed. Lots of people out there rarely seek or get the help.

Maybe I missed the point of the survey?

[LChoy]

Thanks for helping and asking a great question
I probably should put in that we're looking for recent experience with accessing services.
The reason why we needed a cut off period of 1 year or less is because we need a fixed look back period to establish trends when we report on this indicator year after year. Without a cut off, we wouldn't be able to tell if any of the variance we see are the result of actions taking by the provinces and territories or if the sample population happened to have more people talk about their experiences from a long time ago. I can talk to one of our analyst to get a more detail answer, but that's my understanding of having a 1 year look back.

LChoy

[RichieRich]

Perhaps consider having that 12mo cutoff but adopt BA’s suggestion that an 18 or 24mo window may offer a leading indicator that affects accessibility DURING those 12mo. I know of people who gave up waiting for help, or have been waiting inordinate amounts of time and hence are not getting the attention they need. I also know of one mental health service provider who had to go on medical leave themselves; of one busy one that retired, and one that chose to leave Calgary for a smaller BC setting.

[SeeGeeWhy]

I have struggled for years to find access to suitable mental health services. I had to design my company’s benefits program to include an additional mental health benefit top up plus access to a referral platform to allow my staff to circumvent the awful family doc -> Primary Care Network system here in Calgary, I’ve ended up being connected to a remote therapist that practices in Ontario.

I have between 80-100 staff, and our benefit stats show that the category of mental health is the single largest spend (mental health related Rx costs plus mental health related specialist spend).

A good friend launched a start up that is basically an alternative to the mental health referral platform I mentioned, and he told me something shocking. For the entire country of Canada, a population of over 30 million people, there are only about 1,100 licensed mental health practitioners. Oh, but Bell has a sweet ad campaign about talking once a year, so that should make up for it.

I can’t imagine how difficult it is if I also had to gain access to substance abuse resources on top of mental health resources. I’m barely keeping it together as it is.

[troutman]

I know so many people that should be admitted for treatment, but we only have room for people that are suicidal.

[RichieRich]

We have friends that have a child either late teens or early 20's that has been struggling for a few years now. Started with the wrong crowd, evolved into numerous health and addiction programs. Nothing seems to work for this child; its heartbreaking seeing how torn up the parents are as they seem to have tried everything. And the parents even work for AHS. Kid can't seem to break out of the bad cycles and life themselves out of those bad decisions and towards a better life.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by troutman

I know so many people that should be admitted for treatment, but we only have room for people that are suicidal.

That's not true at all. It's pretty dismal here in Canada, but it's most certainly not suicidal only. My life is 100% different today than a few years ago thanks to the resources available. I waited and it sucked and a couple months later I received life changing help.