Public health agency now responsible for mental health promotion strategy, says medical officer of health
Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, explains how District of Muskoka council and the public health unit can work collaboratively to prevent disease and injury, while promoting and protecting health. Jan. 21, 2019. – Alison Brownlee/Metroland
MUSKOKA — Mental wellness has become a matter of public health in Muskoka.
Charles Gardner, medical officer of health of the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, told District of Muskoka council, during an overview of the public health agency in January, that the modernized Ontario Public Health Standards had recently added mental health promotion to the list of health unit responsibilities.
“The mission of public health is to prevent disease and to promote health, to keep the population as a whole healthy,” said Gardner. “Another new requirement is mental health promotion. We, within our plan, have a directive to develop a comprehensive strategy for mental health.”
He said the task was to consider ways in which the health unit could help prevent mental illness in the first place.
According to the health unit, the annual number of mental illness-related emergency room visits for Simcoe Muskoka residents rose from roughly 8,000 in 2011 to more than 10,000 in 2015, which was higher than the provincial average.
Those emergency department visits, stated the health unit, were largely the result of anxiety disorders, followed by substance-related issues other than acute overdose, and then mood disorders.
“The most common diagnoses in Simcoe Muskoka residents were unspecified anxiety disorder, unspecified depressive episode, acute stress reaction and acute intoxication and harmful use of alcohol,” stated the health unit. “Among children and youth, acute stress reaction was the most commonly diagnosed reason for mental illness-related emergency room visits, while unspecified anxiety disorder was the most common diagnosis in all other age groups.”
And there were 3,100 mental health-related hospitalizations from 2011 to 2015.
Roughly one-third of those hospitalizations, continued the health unit, were related to mood disorders such as major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder, followed by substance-related issues other than overdose.
“The most common admissions among youth are for severe depressive episodes, while in adults ages 65 to 74 and 75-plus delirium is the most commonly identified diagnosis,” stated the agency. “In adults 20 to 44, the most common diagnosis is for paranoid-type schizophrenia, and among those 45 to 64, alcohol withdrawal state was the most common diagnosis among Simcoe Muskoka residents.”
Gardner told district councillors that the public health agency’s mental health promotion tactics would include embedding mental health promotion strategies and approaches into public health programs and services, searching for mental health promotion programs and services opportunities for all ages, and finding opportunities to implement whole-community and community-based interventions.
He added that municipalities, including the district government and council, played an important role in population health, including mental wellness.
“You do a lot of actual health care, but knowing that the things you do for other policy — transportation, social services or housing — all of those are important to health,” he said. “All of those influence the social determinants of health. So, our connection with municipalities are very important to fulfilling our mandate of preventing disease.”
The health unit had a $37.3-million budget in 2018, of which the District of Muskoka contributed $1.4 million.
District council also had two representatives, Gravenhurst Coun. Sandy Cairns and Georgian Bay Mayor Peter Koetsier, who sat on the 15-member health unit board.