OTTAWA –Canada faces a looming “echo pandemic” of mental health issues as the coronavirus outbreak takes a heavy toll on isolated Canadians, health-care workers, and those who’ve seen usual mental health supports fall away in the lockdown, says the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Margaret Eaton, head of the association, said there are signs of surging demand for mental health services now but said she is “sounding the alarm” because the impacts will be felt for months and years down the road.

“Canadians need an immediate and substantial investment in mental health to prevent an echo pandemic of mental health problems,” Eaton told the Commons health committee studying the coronavirus response.

The warning comes on a day when Ottawa unveiled a new online tool to provide guidance for people seeking immediate help.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu launched a website called Wellness Canada Together, a portal designed with organizations who provide digital mental health and substance-use support. It is intended to connect Canadians to peer support, social workers, psychologists and other professionals for confidential chat sessions or phone calls.

It asks users to create an account to track progress and access online tools, but says an account isn’t necessary for immediate support. It urges anyone requiring immediate help to call 911, or text a number for someone to talk to.

It comes on top of a Liberal injection of $7.5 million to Kids Help Phone to help young people in the crisis.

“If you’re feeling overwhelmed, know that you aren’t alone and there are people who can help,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “So if you need to, please reach out. We’ll be there for each other.”

However Eaton said that help will be needed at all government levels over the long haul so that “gaps can be closed and new needs met.”

Before the pandemic, mental health services were the poor cousin of the health world, taking up just 7 per cent of health-care budgets, while advocates called for at least 9 per cent of spending to be dedicated to mental health needs, she said.

She pointed to the toll SARS took on Canadian health workers, and to reported suicides among nurses in Italy, and to health-care workers in the U.S. who use the term “moral injury” to describe the experience of fighting COVID-19. That work brings physical and mental exhaustion, fear of infection, inadequate supply of personal protective equipment, and heartbreaking decisions.

Dr. Joanne Liu, a former international president of Doctors Without Borders, told MPs the need to protect health-care workers is urgent.

“This is nerve-wracking….if you want us to care for patients, you have to care for us…physically as well as mentally.”

Eaton said there are existing programs in English and French including peer supports for health workers, and psychological counselling for anyone that can be scaled up to reach thousands of people across Canada, including in rural and remote areas.

Eaton hinted at “imminent” support expected from the federal government for the COVID-19 response at Toronto’s CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, in partnership with the national association and Crisis Services Canada, a network of suicide prevention services.

But she said Canadians will need support “not just for first four months, but for longer.”

Eaton said the group’s branch in Nova Scotia usually receives 25 calls a day but is now fielding 700 daily requests for mental health supports, mostly from people without a history of mental illness.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Those with serious mental illness and addiction are especially vulnerable as are people living in unstable housing or communities where services and treatments have been suspended.

“They are at serious risk of infection, loneliness, increased symptoms and relapse. Indigenous peoples are perhaps the most vulnerable of any population in Canada,” she said. Indigenous communities are already grappling with high rates of mental health issues and the highest youth suicide rates in the country.