The Economic Cost of Mental Illness

Photo, courtesy Getty Images/Calgary Herald

Mental illness adversely affecting Canada’s economic potential

By Alexandra Lopez-Pacheco, Financial Post/Calgary Herald, February 5, 2013

People with mental health problems work in Canada’s C-Suites and storefronts, in factories and offices and in every other workplace in the country. Stereotypes that depict people with mental health problems as “crazy” and incapable of functioning in normal society have perpetuated a false us-and-them divide between the “mentally ill” and the “normal” majority.

The reality is mental health problems affect one in five Canadians every year. Most have led normal working and family lives, but also struggle daily to overcome the symptoms of their mental health problems.

Some businesses today could be contributing to the problem. In his research for The Alberta Survey of Addictive Behaviours and Mental Health in the Workforce report in 2009, psychologist Angus Thompson found 18% of respondents experienced extreme workplace stress. “There are other studies that have found workplace stress is quite high in Canada,” says Mr. Thompson. “That is something that needs to be addressed.”

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