Investing in perinatal mental health as a strategy for improving population-level mental health
The following is a transcript of the opening remarks delivered by Executive Chair, Lauren McCain, at Daymark’s National Perinatal Mental Health Policy Symposium on November 22nd, 2023.
Welcome, everyone - we are excited to kick off Canada’s first-ever National Perinatal Mental Health Policy Symposium.
On behalf of my family, the Daymark Board, and our amazing staff team, we are honoured and grateful to have you here with us today. It is a great privilege and source of pride for me to be able to support this work, and I feel tremendous excitement about the potential to create multi-generational change in mental health outcomes through a focus on perinatal mental health now.
To begin, I’d like to acknowledge that this gathering is taking place on the traditional and unceded lands of the Anishinaabe people, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat.
We cannot overlook the history of mistreatment of Indigenous families in Canada, and the impact of this intergenerational trauma on Indigenous perinatal mental health. Daymark is committed to listening to and learning from Indigenous people on this issue.
“Like many others in this room, our family has experienced its share of mental health challenges. We know that it is not easy to find help when you need it the most and how terrifying it can be to navigate the system. While access to care is always an issue that can and must be improved, we also experienced first-hand the collateral damage of a lack of awareness and the missed opportunity of prevention.”
We set up the Daymark Foundation in 2020 to focus exclusively on mental health. Our family’s commitment to philanthropy, and mental health specifically, has deep roots. As with all of our work, we wanted to go beyond cheque writing and into systems-change through this foundation.
We’ve built relationships and supported critically important mental health institutions and organizations over the years, but we saw the potential for our philanthropic contributions to have an impact on the systems which underpin this frontline work.
Like many others in this room, our family has experienced its share of mental health challenges. We know that it is not easy to find help when you need it the most and how terrifying it can be to navigate the system. While access to care is always an issue that can and must be improved, we also experienced first-hand the collateral damage of a lack of awareness and the missed opportunity of prevention.
We have a bold mission at the heart of the Daymark Foundation: to transform the way we think about and address mental health. We are starting with two priority areas:
1. Women’s mental health, and
2. Bipolar disorder.
Our family decided to prioritize women’s mental health early on for objective reasons: it is often overlooked, underfunded and under-researched.
“I think the single most important insight from today is that the consequences of untreated maternal mental health have a multi-generational effect on mental and physical health outcomes. A mother’s mental health is central to a family’s wellbeing, and it is a leading determinant of a child’s long-term mental and physical health.
Perinatal mental health is therefore not a new issue to be added to the policy list; it is a strategy for improving population-level mental health, and the earliest form of intervention for child and youth mental health.”
At Daymark, we fully appreciate that services to support those in crisis are vitally important. But addressing the root causes of mental and physical health challenges is the real long-term answer. I think the single most important insight from today is that the consequences of untreated maternal mental health have a multi-generational effect on mental and physical health outcomes. A mother’s mental health is central to a family’s wellbeing, and it is a leading determinant of a child’s long-term mental and physical health.
Perinatal mental health is therefore not a new issue to be added to the policy list; it is a strategy for improving population-level mental health, and the earliest form of intervention for child and youth mental health. If we support perinatal mental health today, we can improve all mental health outcomes for generations to come in society.
We recently commissioned a population-representative survey of Canadian mothers, and the results were outstanding. Prevalence-wise, the typical stats suggest that 1 in 5 to 1 in 4 women experience a perinatal mental health issue. Our survey dug deeper into maternal experiences and found that 2/3 of mothers felt so sad or anxious during pregnancy or postpartum that they were concerned about their mental health and of these, 1/3 felt this way most of the time. Think about that – 2/3 of mothers have a mental health concern.
Our work has also highlighted that these issues simply do not get addressed early enough, and this too was reflected in the survey. For example, only around 1/3 of women reported that their primary care providers – OBGYNs, family doctors and midwives combined – raised the subject of mental health at all during pregnancy and postpartum. This is an incredibly important insight and a missed opportunity. As a result, people are not receiving the treatment they need.
“Prevalence-wise, the typical stats suggest that 1 in 5 to 1 in 4 women experience a perinatal mental health issue. Our survey dug deeper into maternal experiences and found that 2/3 of mothers felt so sad or anxious during pregnancy or postpartum that they were concerned about their mental health and of these, 1/3 felt this way most of the time. Think about that – 2/3 of mothers have a mental health concern.”
Past research has shown that only 15% of women receive adequate treatment for their perinatal mental health issue. Our survey found that less than half of mothers who felt ‘very concerned’ about their mental health had received some form of support or treatment. Of those who did not access care, over half of women who could have benefitted from mental health support didn’t access it because they either didn’t feel comfortable asking for help, didn’t know where to go, or couldn’t access care due to financial, geographic or waitlist barriers.
And finally, perinatal mental health issues don’t just affect women and birthing people – they have a measurable, detrimental ripple effect on families. As a result, my father refers to perinatal mental health as the “apex predator” of the mental health ecosystem. We have an opportunity to create an outsized impact by addressing perinatal mental health issues – a 2-for-1 opportunity, really. By addressing these needs, we can affect population-level change.
Our goal at the Daymark Foundation is to work collaboratively towards a future where every individual and family in Canada experience a mentally healthy pregnancy and postpartum period. Though this sounds lofty, we believe that it is attainable given the preventability and treatability of perinatal mental health issues.
We are advancing this goal through three key areas of focus:
1. Reducing the prevalence of perinatal mental health issues by maximizing prevention
2. Reducing severity by increasing access to low and medium intensity supports
3. Building enabling system infrastructure by making the case for perinatal mental health.
“Perinatal mental health issues don’t just affect women and birthing people - they have a measurable, detrimental ripple effect on families. As a result, my father refers to perinatal mental health as the “apex predator” of the mental health ecosystem. We have an opportunity to create an outsized impact by addressing perinatal mental health issues – a 2-for-1 opportunity, really.”
Let me wrap up by saying how proud I am of our amazing team at Daymark, Vani and Andre, for leading this work and for everything they’ve put into this gathering today. They have a deeply felt drive for social change that is enabling our work to progress, and I have enormous respect and admiration for what they have accomplished so far.
I am also grateful for our Board at Daymark, including Uppala Chandrasekera, David Goldbloom, and Lynda Kuhn who are all here today. They have each made an incredible contribution to the work at Daymark by sharing the depth of their experience and insights. Lastly, although he’d prefer me not to, I have to say to my father – you have set the bar high. Throughout my life, you have set such a wonderful example of social leadership and your drive to create a better world for generations to come is deeply felt by our entire family and those around you.
With that, I’d like to introduce our two first speakers. First, the Honourable Michael Tibollo, Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions for the Province of Ontario who has very relevant professional experience in the mental health field. Following Minister Tibollo, we are also honoured to hear from the Honourable Ya’ara Saks, Federal Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health who also has direct experience and has been a long-time community advocate and leader focused on promoting health, mental health and equality. Please join me in welcoming the Honourable Michael Tibollo followed by the Honourable Minister Saks.