Partners for Mental Health is lobbying the federal and provincial governments to help prevent suicide among children and youth.
The charitable organization says every year, 762 young Canadians die by suicide. Almost all of them have a mental illness, such as depression. Only 25% of Canadian children who require mental health services receive them today.
Partners for Mental Health’s new Right By You campaign calls on the federal government to invest $100 million over four years in a newly National Youth Suicide Prevention Fund. It also calls for provincial governments to double the number of children receiving mental health services, treatment and support by the end of 2016.
The organization has been working with Hill+Knowlton on the lobbying efforts. “They have helped us define the government relations and PR strategy around this,” said Jeff Moat, president of Partners for Mental Health.
The central message is that Canada has a two-tier system when it comes to mental health services for children and youth. “Government-provided healthcare only covers the cost of services provided by psychiatrists unless it’s a crisis,” said Moat.
“But there’s typically a one-year waiting period for a young person to get an appointment. However, if you come from a family that has the resources to pay for private mental health services, then they get the treatment right away.”
The Hon. Michael Kirby, a former senator, is front and centre in the campaign. In 2006, Kirby wrote a senate report on the status of mental health in Canada called “Out of the Shadows at Last.” From that report, organizations like the Mental Health Commission of Canada and Partners for Mental Health were created. Kirby became the first chairperson of the Mental Health Commission in 2007.
Since that time, Kirby has been able to leverage his work and long tenure in politics to meet with provincial and territorial health ministers, said Moat. For the Right By You campaign, Kirby attended part of the provincial and territorial Health Minister’s meeting, which took place in Toronto on Oct. 3. He was able to put forth the solution that Partners for Mental Health is proposing to the provinces, said Moat.
“It’s early days,” added Moat. “Unlike our past campaigns where we had a very defined campaign time period, this is something that’s going to carry on well into next year. When we talk about changing policy, it takes time to continue to make the right outreach, to mobilize Canadians to ensure that their voice is heard by their elected officials and start to tailor our communication and mobilization activities around the political calendars in different provinces.”
To encourage Canadians to take action, The Right By You campaign also includes a petition on RightByYou.ca. The petition calls on the government to make mental health-related services available to all children and youth and calls for the creation of a national suicide prevention fund.
The website will also include toolkits that include posters, postcards, banner ads and key messages that Canadians and organizations can use in schools or workplaces to communicate the need for mental health services for youth.
The campaign also includes a PSA that raises awareness about the issue.
