This year, people in Waterloo Region, Guelph and Wellington County had an opportunity to push for lasting change on Bell Let’s Talk Day on Jan. 31.
Community members can sign a petition at erasethedifference.ca and send a strong message to provincial election candidates that mental health and addictions care in Ontario should be funded the same as physical health care.
The petition is led by Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Ontario in collaboration with CMHA Waterloo Wellington in the lead-up to the June provincial election.
CMHA officials say the burden of mental illness in Ontario is 1.5 times that of all cancers combined and more than seven times all infectious diseases.
Yet Ontario devotes $3.5 billion of a $54-billion health budget to mental health and addictions – that’s 6.5 per cent of the health budget. In 1979, it was 11.3%.
There are 30 CMHA branches throughout the province. Together with other local agencies, CMHAs belong to a community-based mental health and addictions sector that serves half a million Ontarians.
