From cma.ca - 18 August 2008: By Patrick SullivanTo read the entire story, click here.
The stigma attached to mental illness is so pervasive it can affect almost all aspects of Canadians' lives, from the people they marry to the workers they hire, a new poll conducted for the CMA indicates.
"The results don't paint a very flattering picture," CMA President Brian Day said of poll, which was part of the CMA's 2008 National Report Card on the state of Canada's health care system. "When only 50% of us would tell a friend that a family member has a mental illness while 72% would disclose a cancer diagnosis, there's something seriously wrong.
"We are looking at the final frontier of socially acceptable discrimination," he added. "It's a national embarrassment."
The mental health results, from an Ipsos Reid online survey of 2,024 Canadian adults, have a margin of error of ± 2.2%. The survey was conducted prior to the CMA's Aug. 18-20 annual meeting in Montreal, where mental health issues took centre stage. Other findings included:Despite their generally negative attitudes, almost three-quarters of respondents (72%) agreed that funding to treat mental illness should be on a par with funding for physical illnesses such as cancer. The Ipsos Reid overview of the results (www.cma.ca) concluded: "In the view of most Canadians, mental health is not given the priority it ought to have within the health care system."
- almost half of Canadians (46%) think the term "mental illness" is used as an excuse for bad behaviour;
- a solid majority of Canadians would not have a family doctor (61%) or hire a lawyer (58%) who has a mental illness;
- 55% would not marry someone who has a mental illness;
- 27% of respondents are fearful of being around people experiencing serious mental illness;
- 15% of respondents had themselves received a previous diagnosis of clinical depression, the most common mental illness.
To read the full Ipsos Reid survey, entitled 8th Annual National Report Care on Health Care (August 2008), click here.
