Ontario’s Select Committee on Mental Health and Addictions – which included Dufferin- Caledon MPP Sylvia Jones – has released its final report, entitled, “Navigating the Journey to Wellness: The Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan for Ontarians.”

Over a two-year period, the committee held 25 public hearings and heard testimony from more than 200 people.

Ms. Jones, Progressive Conservative Community and Social Services critic, was one of nine MPPs on the committee, which had representatives of all three political parties. It was called for in a resolution tabled in December 2008 by PC MPP Christine Elliott, who stated that a committee should be struck to develop a mental health and addictions strategy for Ontario.

“After almost two years of meetings with hundreds of mental health and addictions organizations, clients, and families from across Ontario, I am pleased to see the committee’s vision for mental health and addictions services in Ontario,” Ms. Jones said in a press release.

“Being a member of this committee was important because I hear from many families in Dufferin- Caledon who are struggling to get assessments and then treatment; and I hope this report will bring meaningful change not only to Dufferin-Caledon, but to all Ontarians.”

The provincial Centre for Addiction and Mental Health has calculated that, in economic terms, mental illness and substance abuse cost Ontario about $34 billion a year. “Of course,” the centre adds, “millions of families in Ontario know that the biggest cost can’t be measured in dollars and cents.”

In its final report, the committee concluded that, in general, Ontarians wait too long for treatment.

Youth are caught in the gap between programs for children and adults and their case histories often end up being repeated to series of unconnected service providers.

First Nations people, the report said, struggle with above-average rates of mental illness, addictions, and youth suicide and francophones are misdiagnosed because they are not treated in their first language. Linguistic and cultural barriers may also affect newcomers and refugees.

“Seniors unnecessarily languish with depression, often undiagnosed,” said the report, “while society as a whole must face what has been called the coming tsunami of Alzheimer disease.” It was discerned that individuals with autism, eating disorders, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or a dual diagnosis are “orphaned by a system that seemingly has no place for them.

“ Seriously ill people are often turned away from emergency departments, or released from hospital before their condition has stabilized or without a discharge plan.”

The report said that those with a concurrent disorder – one in which a person has both a mental illness and a substance abuse issue – are told to deal with their addictions first.

Approximately one in 10 people suffer from highly treatable, yet overlooked, conditions such as anxiety disorders, the committee reported.

Finally, it was found that the term “community support” often means that an individual is cared for by a stressed, over-burdened family struggling along without assistance.

The committee pointed out that a major problem with Ontario’s mental health and addictions system is a lack of coherence.

Mental health and addictions services are funded or provided by at least 10 different ministries. Community care is delivered by 440 children’s mental health agencies, 330 community mental health agencies, 150 substance abuse treatment agencies, and approximately 50 problem gambling centres.

“Many people simply fall through the cracks, or give up in frustration because of the complexity of the system,” the committee reported.

The committee has suggested that a new umbrella organization – Mental Health and Addictions Ontario (MHAO), responsible to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care – be created to ensure that a single body is responsible for designing, managing, and coordinating the mental health and addictions system, and that programs and services are delivered consistently and comprehensively across Ontario.