Mental Health Flashcards
Mental Health
a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community
Mental Disorder/Illness
“health conditions involving changes in emotion, thinking or behavior (or a combination of these). Mental illnesses can be associated with distress and/or problems functioning in social, work or family activities
Medical
mental disorders are a ____ probelm
Why is it hard to create policy around mental health?
- hard to cover all areas of mental health
- Hard to tackle mental health, because there are so many policies in every aspect of life that would need to be implemented
Why is it hard to separate mental and physical health?
Many of them follow in the scope of mental, and physical
mental disorder may oresent physical symptoms, vice versa
____ Canadians experience mental illness in a given year
1/5 (20%)
What age group in Canada is more likely to experience mental illness?
Age 15-24
Do all Canadians experience mental illness by the time the reach adulthood?
By the time Canadians reach age 40, 1/2 (50%) have - or will have experienced - a mental illness
Which vulnerable group is most likely to suffer from mental disorder/illness?
Canadians in the lowest income group are 3-4x more likely than those in the highest income group to report poor to fair mental health
Which age group should be targeted for mental health interventions/education policies based on statistics?
age 15-24
- education and intervention in highschools and post secondary schools
What are the main causes of disability in Canada?
Mental illness and substance use disorders
Are Canadians more likely to seek help/disclose physical or mental illness?
3x less likely to want to disclose a mental illness like depression than a physical one like cancer
How does mental health affect the economy?
- Health care costs
- lost productivity
- reductions in health-related quality of life related to mental illness in Canada are estimated to cost $50 billion per year
How does mental illness affect life expectancy?
Mental illness can cut 10-20 years from life expectancy
How many Canadians die by suicide each year?
About 4,000 Canadians die by suicide per year (men representing 75% of suicides)
Do Canadians have proper access to mental health services?
- less than half of Canadians who wanted mental health service received it
Promises by the liberal government surrounding mental health policies
- Separate money that can only be used for mental health
- Canada Mental Health Act Transfer - hasn’t been introduced yet
- Reassess mental health tax credits - like the government gives for those with disabilities
-n implement mental health education into occupational health and safety - fully fund national suicide hotline
- ensure timely access to mental health services
Suicide crisis hotline in Canada
implemented in 2023
988
Ontario government mental health policy promises
Roadmap to wellness - wanted to address:
- Wait times for mental health services
- Barrier to access - where to get help
- Poor coordination across system
- Funding
- Uneven quality
- Lack of data
- Want to create a center for addictions within Ontario health
Problems surrounding diagnosing mental health disorders
stigma, discrimination
- What distinguishes ‘normal’ from ‘abnormal’, ‘order’ from ‘disorder’, ‘healthy’ from ‘pathology’?
- What are the consequences of attributing psychological distresses to mental ‘disorders’ when those distresses have predictable and common sources - poverty, inequality?
Where is the line?
What guidelines are used to diagnose mental illness/disorder?
International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) - published by the American Psychiatric Association
Example of policitical/social influence on mental illness
Homosexuality
- DSM-1 (1952) - Homosexuality listed as a “sociopathic personality disturbance”
- DSM-2 (1974) - Homosexuality no longer listed as a “sociopathic personality disturbance”, now listed as a “sexual orientation disturbance”
–> now not considered a disorder/illness at all
Mental health services financial coverage in Ontario
- Psychotherapy, for example, is covered by OHIP if provided by a physician (family doctor or psychiatrist) or other health professionals (psychologists, psychotherapists, social workers) working in government-funded hospitals, clinics, or agencies
- private is not usually covered
e-mental health
- The use of electronics and the Internet to provide assessment and intervention virtually
Policy perspective - since we have this program maybe we don’t need to focus on it as much anymore
Mental Health Act
- sets out the criteria for voluntary, informal and involuntary admissions to designated psychiatric facilities, as well as for the management of psychiatric outpatients under community treatment orders
Form 1 under the Mental health act?
Form 1 = application for psychiatric assessment
With or without consent
Form 3 - Certificate of involuntary admission
- admit someone involuntarily (without their consent)
Box A
serious harms test
the physician is required to admit the patient on an involuntary basis if they believe that the mental disorder will result in:
- harm to patient
- harm to others
- serious physical impairment of patient
Box B
- future harms test
Community treatment order
- not involuntarily put into psychiatric facility
- Obliged to follow the steps by physician
- there are penalties if they don’t
description of a community treatment planned based on physicians opinion and facts about patient
Example of mental health policy at western university
SRA = policy
Benefits
- don’t have to go through wait times
- reduce burden
- allowed for flexibility
