Prevalence

• 20 % adults experience mental illness/yr.

• 1/17 live with serious mental illness

• 2.6 % adults live with bipolar disorder

• 6.7 % live with major depression

• 18.1% live with anxiety disorders

• 60 % of adults and ½ of youth with a mental illness received no services

• Long delays between symptoms and help.

Source: National Alliance on Mental Illness

NIAGARA REGION

• Hospitalization rates –616 per 100,000 persons vs 392 in Ontario.

• 6.1% of residents rank their mental health status as fair or poor.

• 9.8 deaths by suicide per 100,000 population vs 7.7 in Ontario.

• 7.5% residents are affected by a mood disorder vs. 6.5% in Ontario.

Source: Statistics Canada, Canadian Vital Statistics,

Death Database and Demography Division

• Believe negative attitudes

• Guilt and Shame

• Keep it a secret

• Don’t seek help

• Increase illness

Stigma hurts people in ways that are impossible to measure

Reality: • 1/5 children and youth

struggle

• 70% of adult mental illness begins in childhood or adolescence

Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Reality

• Mental health disorders are caused by biology and/or environment

• Caused by chemical imbalance or prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs.

• Can be the result of abusive or neglectful treatment or stressful events.

Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Reality

• Most people who have a mental illness struggle with depression and anxiety. They have normal lives, but their feelings and behaviours negatively affect their day-to-day activities. Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Reality

• Very little violence caused by people who are mentally ill

• People with a major mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence.

Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Reality

• Research shows depression has nothing to do with being lazy or weak. It results from changes in brain chemistry or brain function.

• Therapy and/or medication help people to recover.Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Yes I have depression

And I can’t just snap out of it!

Reality

• Addictions involve complex factors

• When people who become addicted have these underlying vulnerabilities it's harder for them to simply kick the habit.Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Reality

• Intelligence has nothing to do with mental illnesses or brain disorders.

Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Reality

• function well in the workplace.

• prejudice against hiring people with mental illness

• Unemployment leaves them isolated

Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Reality

• all different - each with its own features and underlying causes

• Each mental illness has its own specific causes, features and approaches to treatment.

Source: Canadian Living and Pathstone Mental Health

Reality

• TREATMENT WORKS!

• many people can and do recover from mental illness.

Source: Canadian Living and

Pathstone Mental Health