Mental Health

Many of you have watched horror movies featuring an evil character springing from a gloomy mental asylum but did you know that in reality, mentally ill people are usually victims of violence instead?

According to a report from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Public Health in Ontario, mental illness is more taxing on society than every type of cancer combined. Yet, mental health stigma is still very much present and continue to plague those innocent victims of such negative labels painted by the movies and media.

In Ontario, around 467,000–654,000 children and youth have at least one mental health disorder and only 20% of those received specialty services. To put in perspective how common mental health problems are locally, in London, there were an average of 7 calls/day to London Police involving the mentally ill. There are also reports of people who had to wait for a week to get a bed in the ER at Victoria Hospital, and even worse, a majority of the mentally ill who go to ER aren’t considered serious enough to be admitted.

Luckily, the London Police have teamed up with the Canadian Mental Health Association to send a mobile team that is responsible for non-violent mental illness related calls. Also, Mental Health Crisis Centre is a drop-in centre that is open 24 hours to everyone, including those with addiction problems, depression, etc.

What else can you do? Early intervention is important, so keep an eye open for you friends, family members or even yourself for signs of mental health problems. Make sure to eat well, exercise, sleep well and connect with others.

Now that you know more about mental health, what are you going to do to help remove the stigma that many continue to suffer from?