Managing Psychiatric Disabilities

The week of September 30th was Focus on Mental Health Awareness Week and there was much discussion about
both mental illness and mental wellness in the newspapers, internet and television.

On September 21, 2010 Bell launched an unprecedented campaign called “Let’s
Talk” committing $50 million to help enhance awareness and understanding about mental
illness and to help support community organizations across Canada. What Bell started is a
positive step in the right direction. You can see what Bell`s doing by visiting their website
http://letstalk.bell.ca/initiatives-anti-stigma/

Following Bell’s “Let’s Talk” initiative, we have dedicated part of our site to Mental Health where
we will be sharing links to articles and information on mental illness and wellness.

I would like to launch this site by referring you to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
(CAMH) website and the statistics on mental illness where it’s noted that mental illness is
the second leading cause of human disability and premature death with an estimated cost to
Canadian economy of $51 billion in terms of health care and lost productivity. Most notably is
the statistic that 500,000 Canadians are absent from work every day due to a psychiatric illness.
Here’s the link to CAMH where you can review all the stats. They also have an online library
where you can find links to lots of information. Here’s the link:
http://www.camh.net/news_events/key_camh_facts_for_media/
addictionmentalhealthstatistics.html

There was also a very powerful and extremely personal show featured on Canada AM where
individuals and families came together to share their stories on suicide. Statistically it was
communicated that approximately 3600 people commit suicide each year in Canada and that
suicide accounts for 24 percent of all deaths among 15-24 year old Canadians. It was noted that
suicide is the second leading cause of death for Canadians between the ages of 10 and 24. You
can learn more from going to Canada AM’s website where you can also watch the interviews.
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/CanadaAM/20111003/suicide-series-facts-statistics-111003/

No matter your age mental illness can affect anyone. Chances are someone close to you right
now is experiencing depression and you wouldn’t even know. Mental illness remains a dark
place where people still struggle to admit they need help, because most people are still afraid
to talk about it. A psychiatrist once told me that CAMH was the only hospital without a gift shop
because so few people visited patients there.

These are just two items I thought you would find of interest as we kick off our site. We will
update the site weekly, doing our best to bring more articles and information to you each week.
There is so much to be learned and so many opportunities to help implement change. We hope
you will join us in keeping the dialogue alive and invite you to submit any articles or suggestions
on how we can collectively work together in the continued need to raise awareness and
understanding on mental health; while at the same time enhancing and expanding our ability to
manage psychiatric disability claims including how to positively help the claimant return to work.

Until next week,

Lynn