'I've lost friends to suicide,' Aglukkaq confides after mental health ...

In a personal disclosure illustrating the long reach of mental illness, Canada?s health minister said Tuesday that she has lost ?a number of friends? to suicide.

?Our body gets ill from different things, and so does the mind,? Leona Aglukkaq told Postmedia News after leading a roundtable discussion on mental health at the 65th World Health Assembly in Geneva.

?We need to look at mental illness like any other illness,? she said. ?We need to start breaking down those barriers that individuals with mental illness face.?

At Tuesday?s session Aglukkaq showcased ??? but did not commit funds to ??? Canada?s new mental health strategy, a document years in the making that calls for a significant cash boost ??? $3-4 billion over 10 years ??? to overhaul a system so fractured and underfunded that many community service groups have dropped waiting lists to avoid giving people false hope that eventually their turn will come.

Aglukkaq said it was clear from her discussions with representatives from several countries ??? among them, Australia, Chile, Finland, the U.K., Bangladesh, India and the U.S. ???that mental health ?is a global priority? and that one of the biggest challenges is stigma.

?We believe that acknowledging that mental health is a global issue is the first important step in breaking down the stigma around mental health,? she said.

Asked if her own life has been touched by mental illness, Aglukkaq, MP for Nunavut, responded, ?Yes, absolutely.

?Family-wise, community, friends. I?ve also lost a number of friends to suicides,? she said. ?Whether that was associated (with mental illness) or not, one could never really know. But we make assumptions on why we lose people that we care about.

?But certainly, I?ve seen people suffer from it, whether from postpartum (depression) or whether through illness . . . The North is very small.?

Canada?s mental health commissioner, Dr. David Goldbloom, who also participated in the discussions in Geneva, said mental illness is so ubiquitous ??? with one in five Canadians every year experiencing some form ??? that ?there is no family in Canada that can stand up and say, ?Not us.??

?We have all known it within the context of our families,? said Goldbloom, chair of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Two of his cousins, who were physicians, died by suicide, Goldbloom said ??? a reminder that the ?white coat? does not protect doctors from the ?full range of illnesses and disorders to which our patients fall prey and experience.?

In a much-anticipated release, the commission earlier this month unveiled the national mental health strategy, 109 recommendations long. It calls for spending on mental health to increase from seven to nine per cent of total health spending.

Aglukkaq declined Tuesday to say whether the Harper government is prepared to put new money into the strategy. She said the government already has invested more than $100 million to support mental health.

?The mental health commission report stated very, very clearly that government alone cannot do this,? she said. ?Government alone cannot roll this plan out. It?s going to involve different levels of government, as well as the private sector.?

Goldbloom, a practicing psychiatrist and senior medical adviser at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said the majority of people with mental illnesses ?are not getting help in our country.?

?And that?s really an unacceptable situation and a source of tremendous frustration, for health care providers but also, importantly, for individuals and their families facing these illnesses.?

Goldbloom said addressing the stigma and discrimination that surround mental illness ?is not simply a matter of changing how people think. It?s also changing how people act.?

Data from Canadian research shows that only 58 per cent of Canadians, when asked, say they would be willing to work alongside someone with a mental illness, he said.

?Well, guess what? In every Canadian workplace there are people silently struggling with mental illness, knowing that the stigma around it prevents them from talking about it as plainly as they might talk about their diabetes or heart disease,? he said.

?That?s the kind of everyday stigma people encounter in every aspect of their personal and professional lives. And it has to change.?

skirkey@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/sharon_kirkey

Article source: http://www.canada.com/lost+friends+suicide+Aglukkaq+confides+after+mental+health+roundtable/6660317/story.html

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