Mental Health in Canada

• A mental health disorder can arise from genetic, biological, personality, and environmental factors, impacting a person's ability to cope with stress and affecting their thinking, mood, behavior, and overall functioning.
• 20% of Canadians will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime.
• Mental health disorders affect individuals of all ages, cultures, and socioeconomic backgrounds, with onset typically occurring during adolescence or young adulthood.
• Mental health is a state of well-being where individuals can cope with everyday stressors in socially acceptable ways, influenced by inherited traits, childhood experiences, and life circumstances.
• Healthy individuals experience emotions like anxiety, sadness, and loneliness but can appropriately manage stress and express emotions, form relationships, and lead independent lives.

Impact of Mental Health Disorders

• Over one million Canadians live with severe or persistent mental health disorders.
• Most Canadians will encounter a family member, friend, or coworker affected by a mental health issue.
• Schizophrenia affects 1% of the Canadian population.
• Anxiety disorders affect 5% of the population.
• Approximately 8% of Canadian adults will experience a major depressive disorder during their lives.
• Suicide rates in some Indigenous communities are five to seven times higher than the national average for First Nations youth and 11 times higher for Inuit youth.
• Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health issue, affecting about 1 in 10 Canadians.
• The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) notes the pandemic's significant impact, contributing to increased mental health concerns, including suicidal thoughts and feelings.
• Mental health disorders cost Canada's economy at least $50 billion annually.
• Without changes in the approach, the impact could rise to $306 billion, with over 8.9 million Canadians affected by 2041.

Causes of Mental Health Disorders

• Biological factors include chemical imbalances and inherited predispositions.
• Traumatic childhood experiences where memories of the events are repressed can later cause mental health disorders in life.
• Social and cultural factors, like poverty, discrimination, and isolation, contribute to mental health issues.
• Stressful life events, especially when unmanaged, and stressful family or workplace situations can lead to mental health concerns.
• Poor physical health and disability increase the risk of mental health disorders.

Supporting Clients and Their Families

• Mental health disorders can be successfully addressed through treatment.
• Most individuals with mental health disorders can live in the community with proper support, treatment, life skills assistance, and employment opportunities.
• Treatment and support for depression can enable 80% of affected individuals to return to their regular activities.
• Chronic and moderately severe cases are often treatable in assisted living facilities/group homes or the comfort of their own homes.
• Support workers provide care and support to clients and their families in various settings.

The Importance of DIPPS

• Actions should always focus on acceptance and respect when supporting individuals with mental health disorders.
• Clients and their families may be sensitive to stigma, hence the need to make every attempt to convey that you are respectful, nonjudgemental, and accepting of their behaviours.
• Mental health disorders affect individuals differently, with severe cases causing distress and functional impairment for both the individual and their families.

Principles of Mental Health Care

• Follow the care plan, and notify the supervisor if support measures are not working.
• Provide a safe, comfortable setting for the client, ensuring both safe care and protection from harm at all times.
• Accept each client as a whole person without making any judgements.
• Be patient and supportive using a calm tone of voice.
• Develop mutual trust, being on time, providing care as promised, and explaining all procedures.
• Explore behaviours and emotions as many clients will share their feelings if they trust you and you take the time to listen.
• Observe the client carefully for any changes in behaviour, mood, and thinking.
• Encourage responsibility, taking responsibility for their own actions helps clients build self-worth, dignity, and confidence.
• Encourage effective adaptation.
• Provide consistency, maintaining a routine promotes a sense of control.

Maintaining Client and Worker Safety

• If a client expresses intentions of self-harm or harming others, it must be immediately reported to the supervisor.
• Personal safety is a priority, maintain a safe distance and avoid premises with unlocked firearms or weapons.

Team Approach

• Care-planning addresses the physical and emotional needs of clients with mental health disorders.
• The physician may order medications depending on the client's disorder, signs, and symptoms, as a number of mental health disorders can be controlled effectively with medication.
• The team may include:
  • Family physician
  • Nurse
  • Occupational therapist
  • Social worker
  • Support worker
  • Mental health specialists.
• Psychiatrists specialize in mental health disorders and can prescribe medications.
• Psychologists and psychotherapists are healthcare professionals with expertise in non-medication treatments for mental health disorders.
• Indigenous mental health providers such as elders, healers, and cultural counselors are also helpful.

Treatment of Mental Health Disorders

• Treatment often involves psychotherapy, where clients explore thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.
• Various forms of psychotherapy include psychoanalysis, behaviour therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, group therapy, and family therapy.

Stigma of Mental Health Disorders

• People with mental health disorders often face discrimination due to lack of understanding.
• The Mental Health Commission of Canada reports that stigma is a major reason individuals do not seek treatment or take medication.
• The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH) aims to prevent stigma and discrimination through educational programs.

Effect on the Family

• Family members may face difficult decisions, anxiety, financial burdens, guilt, and an increased risk of depression.
• Family members also face stigma that mental health disorders affect in different ways.

Culture and Its Influence on Mental Health Disorders and Treatment

• Culture profoundly influences understanding of mental health disorders and their treatments.
• Interpretations of the signs and symptoms of what some call 'mental illness' vary greatly from culture to culture and even from person to person.
• What may be appropriate behaviour in one culture or group of people may be considered “insanity” in another.

Mental Health Challenges Among Marginalized Populations Within Canada

• Marginalized populations, including those not fluent in an official language, visible minorities, geographically isolated individuals, people with disabilities, those with substance abuse problems, or those working in the sex trade, face increased mental health challenges.
• Marginalized people can also include inmates and refugees.
• Refugees may have faced imprisonment, torture, murder, extreme hunger, and poverty and must learn to cope with life in a new country

Providing Care and Support for Clients With Mental Health Disorders

• Common mental health disorders include brain injuries, schizophrenia spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, depressive disorders, anxiety disorders, trauma-related disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, sleep-wake disorders, suicidal behaviour, disruptive disorders, substance abuse disorders, and personality disorders.

Acquired Brain Injuries

• ABI is any sudden injury or illness that causes temporary or permanent damage to the brain, which may increase the risk of anxiety and depression.

Supporting Clients With Acquired Brain Injury (ABI}

• Follow care plans, reassuring clients that their experiences result from brain injury.
• Encourage routines in tasks like bathing, dressing, and eating to reinforce accomplishment and reduce anxiety.
• Encourage setting long-term and short-term goals that are realistic and achievable.
• Ensure adaptive devices are within reach to facilitate ambulation or communication.
• Encourage clients to "put the past behind them" to participate fully in rehabilitation activities.
• Observe for and report substance use, as clients with ABI may use harmful substances due to depression or impaired reasoning.

Assess your understanding of Canadian mental health statistics, prevalence, and influenced factors. Questions cover resilience, disorder definitions, and disproportionately affected communities like Indigenous populations. Explore impacts of events like COVID-19 and common conditions such as schizophrenia.