Kathleen Wynne announces $2.1 billion in new mental health funding over four years

The premier emphasized that no one in Ontario should struggle to access mental health or addictions care for themselves or their loved ones. Further details will be announced next week during the budget.

Thestar.com
March 21, 2018
By Robert Benzie

Ontario's Liberal government is promising $2.1 billion in additional mental health funding over the next four years.

Premier Kathleen Wynne made the pre-budget announcement Wednesday at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

The new money is over and above the $3.8 billion already being spent annually on mental health services and comes against the backdrop of a June 7 election that public opinion polls suggest will be challenging for the governing Liberals.

"We know there can be no health without mental health," Wynne told a packed news conference also attended by Finance Minister Charles Sousa, Health Minister Helena Jaczek, Education Minister Indira Naidoo-Harris, and Community and Social Services and Children and Youth Services Minister Michael Coteau.

"No one in Ontario should struggle to access mental health or addictions care for themselves or their loved ones," said the premier.

"We have a good system, but the fact is that too many people are struggling to navigate the system to find the care that they need either because it's not there or because they don't have a way of navigating," she said, emphasizing more can and must be done.

That's why with voters headed to the polls in 11 weeks, Wynne is pledging "the biggest single investment in mental health care in Canadian history."

"Yeah, an election is close, but the reality is that the people in this room - and the people around the province who need services - don't care that there's an election close. What they want to know is that their child is going to get some support."

The new funding will mean every secondary school in the province will have access to additional mental health professionals with 400 positions created over the next two years.

Next year, 12,000 more young people will have community-based therapy and counselling, jumping to 46,000 by 2021-22.

There will also be as many as 15 new "youth wellness hubs" over the next four years to help those aged 12 to 25.

As well, up to 350,000 more people suffering from anxiety or depression will have access to additional information therapy and 2,475 new supportive housing units will be created over the next four years.

Further details will be disclosed next Wednesday in Sousa's budget, which will serve as the template for the Liberals' campaign platform.

Mental health advocates were pleased.

"We are thrilled with the government of Ontario's remarkable commitment to increase mental health funding for children and youth community-based services," said Kim Moran, CEO of Children's Mental Health Ontario.

"This investment shows that mental health and addictions is a priority ... and shortages of services and long wait times faced by children and youth may finally begin to be addressed," said Moran.

The issue will almost certainly be front and centre during the coming election with NDP Leader Andrea Horwath promising a standalone ministry of mental health and addictions.

Horwath said Wynne's move "is at least a decade overdue."

"After 15 years in office, anything the Liberal government wanted to do, they would have already done. It's time for a new premier who will give Ontario's mental health system the focus, the investment, and the dedication that it deserves," she said.

Under former leader Patrick Brown, the Progressive Conservatives had promised $1.9 billion in new mental health funding over the next decade.

But new Tory Leader Doug Ford, who is vowing to make some $5.6 billion in annual cuts, has tossed out Brown's moderate People's Guarantee platform so it's unclear what a PC government would do if elected in June.

PC MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton) said if the Liberals "cared, we wouldn't have a 67 per cent increase in hospitalizations for children with mental health disorders."

"If they cared, it wouldn't take six months to see a psychiatrist after a suicide attempt," said MacLeod, adding Ford would be announcing the party's new platform in the coming weeks.