Mental Illness: A Medical Orphan
Date: Wednesday, October 27 @ 01:00:00 PDT
Topic: Parent Resources


Mental illnesses are medical orphans. Despite their high incidence and dramatic impact on people’s lives, this collection of medical problems remains underappreciated and underfunded relative to other diseases. Of the 10 leading causes of disability worldwide, five are mental health disorders: major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, substance abuse and obsessive compulsive disorder. At any given time, 20 per cent of Canadians have a mental illness and that number is fast approaching 25 per cent. Tragically, about 4,000 Canadians commit suicide each year. It is the most common cause of death for people aged 15–24. For many aboriginal communities it is a crisis with an incidence that is 4 to 5 times higher than the rest of the population. In some cases several young people, bereft of hope, kill themselves as part of a suicide pact they make with their friends.

Depression is a ubiquitous illness with its highest rate in those who are under the age of 20. According to the World Health Organization, by the year 2020 depression will be the leading cause of morbidity in the world and may already be the leading cause of economic loss due to illness.

Another area that we are woefully unprepared for is the rising incidence of dementia. This will increase dramatically in the coming years as the baby boomers retire. Currently, 1 in 11 people over the age of 65 have dementia from Alzheimer’s disease or another cause. This year alone, more than 103,000 Canadians will be diagnosed with this affliction. If nothing changes, the number of people living with dementia is expected to more than double, reaching 1.1 million Canadians within the next 25 years.

Substance abuse is another major mental health problem in our society. Among Canadians, 13% are at risk drinkers. Depression frequently coexists with alcoholism. Amongst youth prostitutes, 44% started in prostitution just to get money to pay for their drugs. In Canada, 1 baby is born every day with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), which is the leading cause of preventable, irreversible brain damage at birth. The downstream effects of this are devastating. It is estimated that nearly half of inmates in federal prisons have FASD.

The good news is that there are some excellent programs that are very effective at preventing (the Head Start Program for Children) or treating (Vancouver’s NAOMI program) substance use. Sadly, drug policy has been mired in cheap politics at a national level where ideology trumps scientific fact and research. This has lead to appalling inaction to address this scourge that touches too many Canadian families.

The Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health stated in a release last week that the yearly economic cost of mental illnesses equals 14% of corporate Canada’s net operating profits. This is roughly $14.4 billion a year; tag substance abuse onto this and the cost balloons to $18 billion. Despite this huge cost to our society, less than 4% of medical research funding is applied to mental illnesses.

For many, it is easier to understand a broken limb than a broken mind, yet both are painful and debilitating. Prejudice and ignorance have hampered effective action in this area. Mental illnesses in Canada are orphan problems. Canada desperately needs to implement a national mental health strategy that will enable us to prevent a great deal of hardship in the future. Prevention, treatment and care are desperately needed for Canadians who are attempting to tame their terrible demons in their own anguished, private world. See Dr. Martin's Blog at http://blog.gokeith.ca/2010/10/mental-illness-a-medical-orphan/





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