Canada is facing a mental health crisis, with nearly half a million Canadians missing work each week due to mental health issues, costing an estimated $51 billion annually in healthcare, lost productivity, and reduced quality of life.
Teladoc Health believes technology is essential to help mitigate these numbers. For over twenty years, Teladoc Health Canada has been supporting Canadians with virtual care services including comprehensive mental health programs. It also provides remote technology devices and licensable platform services and currently supports nine million people in Canada through employers, insurers and in hospitals and health systems.
BetaKit spoke with Teladoc’s Deputy Medical Director, Dr. Karolina Filipowska, about the company’s recent report entitled “From Hurdles to Healing: Navigating Mental Health Needs in Canada,” and the role that tech can play in supporting access to care.
The following Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Why did you want to produce this report now?
If we think back to the pandemic, that difficult time shone an appropriate light on the lack of mental health support so many people desperately needed.
This shift in public conversation brought the question of mental health needs to the forefront, and I’m so thankful for that as a clinician, and as a human, because it helps lessen the stigma of not feeling well mentally, and it helps normalize seeking out care. So that’s the “why.”
At Teladoc Health Canada, we’ve been providing care in Canada for over two decades, and we’re really, really proud to be able to offer mental health care, and we’re always looking at how we can evolve to better meet the needs of Canadians. The goal in our study was not only to explore these needs past the pandemic, but also to understand what accessing care to meet these needs looks like for many Canadians.
What was the most surprising finding from the study?
The study shows that awareness of mental health issues has increased, but at the same time, there are very real gaps in individuals actually getting the help they need. Alarmingly, 78 percent of those who accessed mental health support describe the process of navigating the healthcare system as somewhat or very difficult.
What that means is that more than three quarters of people who got help had difficulty getting it. Equally worrying is that more than half (53 percent) said it was a struggle to find a professional who helped them feel better.
Your research also found more than one in four Canadians sought mental health support last year. Were you surprised by this high number?
As an emergency physician, I’m not. The number of people who come into the emergency department with mental health related issues is on the rise, and if you think about when you want to first tackle any health problem, it’s not in an emergency state. It’s way before that with appropriate resources and care.
Generally, we’ve seen a marked increase in individuals requesting immediate health support, which mirrors the broader national trend. So, it wasn’t a surprise, but in looking at the results of our study, it’s striking to see that three out of five Canadians we surveyed have tried to access mental health support in the past five years for themselves or someone in their family. That’s a lot of us in Canada looking for this help.
BetaKit readers work in Canadian tech and innovation, how should this research influence employers who are thinking about how to support and empower healthy employees and teams?
Mental health is a part of health that we should be addressing regularly, and the study shows that employers are perfectly positioned to play a role in their employees’ mental health and well-being.
Not only is it an opportunity to help your fellow humans, if your employee feels good about themselves and has the necessary coping mechanisms to deal with daily stressors, this is directly linked to greater productivity, greater job satisfaction, fewer sick days, and less absenteeism, and the report that we released clearly speaks to this.
Unsurprisingly, seventy-one percent of study participants said that they have a greater likelihood of remaining with an employer who fully supports their mental health needs. I also believe that individuals who work in tech and innovation will be more comfortable with newer programs and tools that exist to increase accessibility.
Teladoc is a digital health platform. How can technology help support access to mental health care in Canada?
Teladoc was founded with the vision to create a world where great healthcare is always in reach. This includes mental healthcare, and everyone should be able to receive the best healthcare when they need it, wherever they are.
Over nine million Canadians have access to our platform in Canada through their employers, through insurers, or through provincial healthcare systems. When you pair technology with digital healthcare, patients don’t struggle. For example, we have a product called Mental Health Navigator. This is a service where we navigate the system for you in a way that’s accessible, flexible, and offers confidential options for employees who may otherwise hesitate to seek help.
Virtual care platforms like Teladoc’s virtual Mental Health Care are also flexible. So, if you’re busy with a job, hobbies, a partner, dependents and more, technology provides the flexibility to meet your needs when the time is right for you. It’s not the opposite way around. And you can scroll through our Teladoc app to review the bios of the psychologists and therapists available and choose the one that suits your needs.
All these features are essential because they remove traditional barriers such as stigma and accessibility and provide a private and convenient way for individuals to get the care they need.
What role do you think employers can play? What’s the connection between mental health support and productive employees and teams?
Mental health significantly impacts productivity and quality of life, and that means it’s imperative for us to simplify access to reliable resources. It’s important to send people to a place that’s trusted and sustainable and to create a supportive environment.
The key is actually individualizing this for your team. When we’re healthy, both physically and mentally, we work better, and workplaces recognize this and the importance of providing meaningful support, so investment in employee health is going to be crucial.
To learn more about Teladoc’s insights into Canadian’s mental health and employee well-being, read the report here.
Images provided by Santis Health.