Public Policy
People living with disabilities have a right to participate fully and equally in Canadian society.
In Canada today, many people live with recurrent or episodic disabilities that are characterized by alternating periods of illness and wellness. As stated in the Government of Canada response to the 2003 report Listening to Canadians: A First View of the Canada Pension Plan Disability Program: “recurrent and episodic disabilities are becoming more prevalent in Canadian society.”
There are many systemic and practical barriers which prevent people with episodic disabilities from participating in the labour force, in communities, and in society in a meaningful way.
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), National Office hosted a web discussion throughout March and April 2005 to promote a dialogue on mental health and home care: key issues and policy implications. The web discussion touched on many of the important elements to be considered in developing mental health and home care policies.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) tracks health spending by each source of finance in the National Health Expenditure Database (NHEX). This database contains a historical series of macro level health expenditure statistics by province and territory beginning in 1960. The Canadian Institute for Health Information assumed responsibility for the national health accounts, including the National Health Expenditure database, in 1995. National Health Expenditure Trends (1975–2005) is CIHI’s ninth annual health expenditure trends publication and provides detailed, updated information on health expenditure in Canada.
In 1999, a study titled Geographic Distribution of Physicians in Canada was published,
which documented how physicians were distributed in Canada, using data mostly from the
mid-1990s.1 But the nature and extent of distribution imbalances, and possibly the public’s
perception of them, are changing—and so is our understanding of what constitutes
distribution imbalances. This study, published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information in 2005 represents an update and extension of the 1999 publication.
The last few decades have seen a growing number of women in the labour force. As the gender ratio evens out and more women assume the mantle of senior leadership, it becomes increasingly important for employers and their EAPs to identify and address gender differences in work and non-work stressors. With this in mind, we conducted a study to examine and compare EAP utilization trends among men and women from 2002 to 2004.
Just as early childhood experiences can have an important impact on health throughout a person’s life, teens’ experiences are also linked to health status many years later. Improving the Health of Young Canadians explores links between adolescents’ social environments (families, schools, peers and communities) and their health. Our focus is on the health of Canadian youth aged 12 to 19 years.
There are many ways to improve the lives of people with mental disorders. One important way is through policies, plans and programmes that lead to better services. To implement such policies and plans, one needs good legislation–that is, laws that place the policies and plans in the context of internationally accepted human rights standards and good practices. This Resource Book aims to assist countries in drafting, adopting and implementing such legislation. It does not prescribe a particular legislative model for countries, but rather highlights the key issues and principles to be incorporated into legislation.
In recent years, there has been a great deal of change in the way developed countries perceive issues of poverty and exclusion. New data have allowed a better understanding of the dynamics of poverty, its persistence over the course of life, and the identification of groups at risk. The Policy Research Initiative of the Government of Canada is collaborating with other federal departments in a systematic exploration of the potential implications for policy-making of these newer ways of perceiving poverty and exclusion. This presentation outlines suggestions for new approaches for addressing poverty and exclusion.
This study was conducted by Leger Marketing on behalf of Wyeth Canada to understand the incidence and effect of depression and anxiety on women in the workplace. Its objectives were to measure the prevalence of these conditions among working women and to understand a) how these illnesses affect women’s day-to-day experience at work, b) what impact, if any, they have on women’s career paths, and c) how getting well (achieving remission), may benefit the work life and careers of the women studied.
The Canadian Mental Health Association recommends five broad areas on which the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology should move forward: developing and implementing a pan-Canadian national strategy on mental Illness/mental health; responding to the Premiers’ Council’s commitment to community mental health; ensuring that children and youth, aboriginals, women, and new immigrants are included in the national strategy; ensuring that suicide is addressed as part of the national strategy; and committing to increasing the capacity of the voluntary sector in the mental health community to participate in public policy development.
