Being well helps finances swell

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This article was published 10/02/2024 (940 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Suffering with mental health can be a lonely road, something Bell Let’s Talk day has long aimed to address, urging Canadians to come together so no one walks alone on their journey to wellness.

All too often, the campaign recognizes, people suffer in silence and yet, it’s no secret to Canadians about the state of mental health care, made clear by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH) in its recent, second annual National Report Card.

“It was effectively Fs across the board,” says Glenn Brimacombe, Ottawa-based chair of the public affairs committee for CAMIMH.

“Canadians are clearly, whether it’s mental health or substance abuse health, rating their governments with failing grades.”

The report card didn’t drill down to the financial issues but Brimacombe, a health-care economist, called mental health “the poor cousin” of physical health with respect to public funding.

This is detrimental given how deeply connected money and mental health can be.

On the one hand, a financial insecurity is correlated to poorer mental and problematic substance use, as noted in a recent report from Boston University on the impact of COVID, economic insecurity and mental health. On the other hand, mental health challenges contribute to poorer economic outcomes. A report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found, for instance, that the economic burden of mental health costs up to four per cent of global GDP (gross domestic product).

What’s more, about 50 per cent of unhoused individuals struggle with addictions and/or mental illness, a Canadian Mental Health Association report suggests, while about one in two Canadians by age 40 experience mental illness, often facing long waits in the public system and left to rely on limited employer coverage, or to pay out of pocket. One 2020 study found Canadians pay about $950 million annually for private mental health care, with about 30 per cent paid out of pocket and the remainder from workplace coverage.

Although most health care is funded by public money, “it’s the reverse for mental and substance use health,” Brimacombe says.

The financial industry — whose bread and butter is financial wellness — is increasingly aware, including insolvency trustee firm Bromwich + Smith.

“Our front line staff receive training on suicide awareness because we talk to people at often the lowest points in their life, and hear the most heartbreaking stories,” says Sarah Stachiw, Calgary-based spokesperson for Bromwich + Smith.

Its staff sees individuals whose mental health and substance challenges have led them to the brink of insolvency, and others whose financial challenges have caused sleeplessness, depression, anxiety and a low sense of self worth, she adds.

Other financial organizations are also increasingly cognizant and upping their efforts, including TD Bank. Besides recently boosting mental health coverage for its employees, the big bank has also conducted research to grasp the problem’s scope finding that, among most financially vulnerable individuals, only 17 per cent reported having good mental health.

Yet broaching the topic can be tricky.

“Our mental health and our finances are both pretty personal things, so it can be difficult to talk about either of them, let alone together,” says Michael Warren, Winnipeg-based, district vice-president for Manitoba North at TD Bank Group.

The financial industry is again evolving to address this challenge with new, hybrid organizations, for instance, offering mental health and financial workers training and professional certification in trauma-informed approaches to financial wellness.

“We believe that any trauma that people experience in their lifetime, or even generational trauma, can impact relationships with money,” says Chantel Chapman, Vancouver-based chief executive officer of Trauma of Money.

The organization is a collective of 17 experts — from therapists to community educators — which has provided training for more than 1,200 financial and mental health professionals over the last four years.

Chapman spent five years developing the program, recognizing the dearth of expertise in the space where mental health and money intersect.

She also has lived the experience.

“I grew up in poverty with a single mom, and there was a lot of instability in my childhood and trauma.”

Chapman adds she worked in the financial industry for two decades and yet, still struggled with money due to her mental health.

“I knew logically what to do with money.”

But her behaviour with money was anything but, she says, noting it bore similarities to problematic substance use.

“So much of my behaviour around money was a ‘please, love and accept me’ mechanism; I was basically overspending to be accepted.”

Chapman is in a better headspace today and wants to help others find peace of mind.

Organizations like hers, however, represent a drop in the solution bucket. The public sector must step up, which governments increasingly recognize even if they typically fall short on action.

Brimacombe notes during the last federal election major parties made promises to improve funding, and the current government had earmarked $4.5 billion for mental health care.

“Unfortunately, with the mating dance that occurred this past year with the 10-year Health Accord, that money was put into general funding,” Brimacombe says, noting no hard guarantees exist from provinces that the sum will go to mental health.

That’s not to say Manitoba and other provinces have not funded and developed good initiatives, he adds. “But they’re not moving and scaling up fast enough.”

It’s a situation likely to leave many struggling with mental (and likely financial) health.

“The evidence is clear that there is a return on investment,” Brimacombe says about increased public funding.

“The quicker people access treatment; the better their mental health outcomes, allowing them to be productive.”

Joel Schlesinger is a Winnipeg-based freelance journalist

joelschles@gmail.com