CMHA wants Ontario to 'treat mental illness like the flu'

Treatmental illness the same as the flu that's the message behind a new Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) campaign called Erase the Difference.

CMHA's Ontario division heads the campaign and it aims to pressure Ontario to bringmental health and addictionsfunding up to par with the rest of the healthcare system.

Camille Quenneville, CEO of CMHA Ontario, told CBC News there is a largedifference in mental health funding versus physical health.

"Focusing on just mental health and addiction we have about 6.5 per cent of the overall health budget and we should be at 10 per cent," she said.

Ontario devotes only $3.5 billion of the total $54 billion health budget to mental health and addictions.

Fred Wagner, executive director of CMHA Waterloo Wellington said in a statement the mental health and addictions health care system is "chronically underfunded."

The lack of adequate funding can create problems for people with mental health and addictions issues, such as longer wait times for assessment or treatment. Currently in Ontario, the average wait time to see a counselloris five months.

That's unacceptable, saidQuenneville.

"It's not OK to wait for much-needed mental health and addiction services and the fact that we're used to it doesn't make it OK," she said.

"I don't think we treat our physical health that way and we don't think about ourphysical health that way."

'A life-threatening illness'

The painful truth is all too real for Jacob Ranton'sfamily. The20-year-old basketball star died by suicide three years ago in Waterloo.

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"The one thing that we tell people is Jacob died of a life-threatening illness," DougRanton said during an interview with CBCNews.

"Whether it's cancer or heart disease, etc., mental illness is a disease as well and it can be life-threatening. If it's not treated and people don't get help, it can be dangerous."

The Rantonsare part of a growing movement calling for openness and transparency about suicide.

'Erase the difference'

The CMHAcampaign is asking Ontarians to sign an online petition to "erase the difference and fund mental health and addictions care the same as physical health care."

As of Tuesday morning, there were just over 4,000 signatures.

Quenneville said the campaign is important because "every family in Canada is impacted by mental health and addictions."

Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in Canadaand people with mental illness and addictions are more likely to die prematurely 10 to 20 years earlier than the general population, according to statistics gathered by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.

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One in five Ontarians will experience a mental health problem in any given yearand the disease burden of mental illness is 1.5 times the burden of all cancers combined.

Quenneville said the statistics paint "a very clear picture of the impact of mental health issues and addictions issues in society, and we just don't fund it accordingly."

She said an increase in funding would go towardproviding better service, increasing the number of programs available and making said programs more available.

The funding would support research, which she said is another area that needs more support when compared to physical health research.

The campaign comes as a provincial election looms in June, something the CMHA is using to their advantage.

"We think the timing is great, we are months away from a provincial election when people are really focused on issues that matter to them and on public policy," said Quenneville.

"We want to really galvanize some attention here, increase public discourse get people taking about this issue."