OTTAWA—The Mental Health Commission of Canada has released a policy brief on the impacts of the post-pandemic economic crisis and rising living costs on Canadians’ mental health and well-being. The 49-page report addresses unaffordable housing, food insecurity, mental health-related disabilities, access to mental health services and the intersection of health considerations for vulnerable populations.
The skyrocketing cost of living in Canada has led many formerly middle-class households into increased financial insecurity while worsening the pressure on families and individuals who were already living below the poverty line. Income inequality and constraints on food and housing affordability are all significantly impacting citizens’ mental health and well-being. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) released staggering statistics showing that 75 percent of children with mental health disorders do not have access to specialized treatment.
The new policy brief synopsizes new evidence and shines a light on important mental health policy considerations focused on the elevated impact on equity-deserving populations. The repercussions of the high cost of living on mental health and access to services are amplifying existing inequity for already oppressed populations such as Indigenous and other racialized populations, those suffering from historic mental health disorders, children and women, and children already living in poverty. While the improved Canada Disability Benefit, announced on January 22, holds some promise, the Mental Health Commission is advocating for a more panoptic approach to Canada’s rising mental health crisis.
According to research found in the National Library of Medicine: “the relationship between poverty, social stress and mental health problems is not a new phenomenon and was reported by social psychiatrists half a century ago in Langner and Michael’s 1963 New York study and consistently since then. Poverty is both a cause of mental health problems and a consequence. Poverty in childhood and among adults can cause poor mental health through social stresses, stigma and trauma. Equally, mental health problems can lead to impoverishment through loss of employment or, underemployment, or fragmentation of social relationships. This vicious cycle is in reality even more complex, as many people with mental health problems move in and out of poverty, living precarious lives.”
A public health approach to social movements is necessary, advocates say. From early medical doctors examining the links between cholera and poisoned water, the HIV crisis in the ‘80s to our more recent global pandemic emergency, the data is clear, the social determinants of health in descending order are: economic stability, food security, neighbourhood (crime, violence, environment), access to education and access to care, according to a paper released by the Harvard Medical Journal in 2022.
The new policy brief has been reviewed by seven experts in academia, research and policy analysis. It highlights that while policy reforms are being scaled back, mental health crises are worsening. The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare gaps and systemic inadequacies across the social security system in Canada and while the federal government addressed the economic pressures with stop gap measures such as CERB and other relief benefits, according to the CRA bill tabled in the House of Commons, over 260,000 Canadians are still on the hook to repay $1.2B in relief funds while more than 885,000 small businesses and not-for-profit who took out Canadian Emergency Business Account loans, totaling more than $48 billion are approaching the deadline for repayment. Almost $700 billion has been gifted to corporations, which means that the working class received only 15 percent of the pandemic funds, widening the gap between the rich and the poor. An estimated 3.4 million jobs were lost across Canada between January and May 2020.
“Long-term, comprehensive, and sustained changes are needed that target poverty, the high cost of living, and the associated impacts on mental health,” according to the report. While some measures have been taken to alleviate the financial burden on low-income households, such as eliminating interest on federal student loans, expanding early learning and child-care funding, and providing financial support for renters, dental benefits, and GST/HST rebates, these programs do comprehensively confront the social and health (including mental health) impacts of the high cost of living.
According to data from Statistics Canada, there was a significant increase in the proportion of individuals reporting low incomes and disabilities in 2021, including those without disabilities. Over the past two decades, the percentage of workers earning minimum wage has nearly doubled, rising from 5.2 percent in 1998 to 10.4 percent in 2018. Additionally, precarious employment, which encompasses 22 percent of the labor market, has also seen a notable increase. Many workers in precarious and minimum wage positions lack access to essential benefits beyond what public systems provide, such as mental health support, pensions, and sick pay.
The escalating cost of living is exacerbating the issue of homelessness, particularly impacting the physical and mental well-being of individuals already vulnerable to mental health and substance abuse challenges. Estimating the exact number of unhoused individuals is challenging. Still, according to the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH), in 2023, 79 percent of 14 communities surveyed witnessed increases in chronic homelessness since 2020, with an average overall rise of 34 percent. This rise in homelessness surpasses the capacity of available shelters. Additionally, clearing encampments, especially in the absence of permanent housing alternatives, poses significant harm to the unhoused population.
The policy recommends potential actions such as “re-evaluating income supports to bring them up to date with inflation, increasing the minimum wage to reflect the living wage, and exploring universal basic income and portable benefits,” strengthening the full range of income and benefit supports for people living in Canada and monitoring the impacts on mental health, provide a new National Housing Strategy funding linked to permanent housing for people with mental health concerns, investing in an adequate supply of more affordable, high quality and nutritious foods for Canadians with low incomes, collaborating with people with mental health related disabilities to implement a plan for the Canada Disability Benefit in 2024-2025, reducing barriers to access services related to mental health and substance use, co-create distinct policy responses to address the mental health impacts of the high cost of living with groups most affected by inequities, expand the collection, availability, and use of demographic-based data to monitor the equity impacts of relevant policy reforms and ensuring that funding and resources are equitably distributed across Canada through funding models that are flexible, predictable and inclusive.
