Public Education and Advocacy

Mental Illness Awareness
Campaign

Advocacy Partnerships

Advocacy on
Professional Issues

CAMIMH

Why is the CPA involved in Public Education and Advocacy?

The persistent stigma associated with mental illness and the challenges facing the mental health care system require a strong united voice both among those who work on the front lines and those who live with mental illness.

The needs of people diagnosed with a mental illness have been neglected for far too long. One in five Canadians can expect to experience a mental illness sometime in their lives and about 16% of health care expenditures can be attributed to psychiatric disorders. Almost 4,000 people a year commit suicide. One in ten people at some point in their lives is seriously affected by depression, a leading illness among women 15 to 44 years old. Family physicians state that 40% of patients’ visits are related to emotional, not physical, issues. Yet, less than 4% of medical research funding is directed to psychiatric conditions in Canada. Too often mental health treatment, care, rehabilitation and support are not available or accessible to those who need them. For the most part funding and policies need to support and create a continuum of care based on what the evidence shows works best. But this adage has not been applied to the mental health system. Many people feel that mental health remains a second class cousin within the health care system.

The CPA’s advocacy and public education activities are aimed at ensuring better quality care is available within the health care system and at ensuring that psychiatrists are able to practice medicine to the best of their ability. As a precursor to such change, attitudes about mental illness must also change.

Professional unity within psychiatry and building bridges with allied professionals, consumers, family and community are an essential element of implementing the CPA mission of quality care for all.

The CPA currently is working in three areas to help change attitudes about mental illness and to improve the system serving those with a mental illness: