Experts warn of pandemic's deepening impact on mental health as caseloads rise

As at least oneprovincial leaderweighs the tough questionof whether to ordermore lockdowns over the holidays to cope with a swelling second wave of the pandemic, a business organization is warning that the stress could be pushing many business owners beyondthe brink.

Quebec Premier Franois Legault announced tighter lockdown measures earlier this week. After weeks of calls from medical professionals for more stringent measures, theAlberta government ordered a four-week lockdown earlier this month.

Today,Ontario Premier Doug Ford told a news conferenceseveral times that "everything is on the table" as the province struggles to contain its rising localcaseloads, and hinted that the Greater Toronto and Hamilton regions could be in line for new restrictions.

At the same time, Ford said he's worried about the impactnew restrictions might have on individuals' mental health.

"We're seeing, you know, addictions rise right now. We're seeing suicides rise," Ford told a press conference today. "So we have to measure everything. It's not always health. Health is number one. That's the number one priority. Without health, we don't have our economy."

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) estimates that between55,000 and 218,000 small and medium-sized businesses are at risk of closing due to the pandemic.Dan Kelly, CFIB's president and CEO, said his organization has fielded roughly65,000calls from panicked businesspeople who are watchingtheirsavings evaporate.

Tears and trauma

"Many of the business owners are calling in tears, seeing their businesses vanish in their hands. But a dozen of them have contemplated suicide, taking their own lives," he said recently.

"We've had to provide our own counsellors at CFIB, with some support to help them provide advice and counsel in dealing with the trauma they are facing every day after listening to hundreds and hundreds of calls from business owners that are absolutely desperate."

As some businessesprepareto close for a second time, said Kelly, many are doing so in the knowledge that the next inevitable step isbankruptcy.

"There's no reserve or no fat left to trim in businesses at this stage," he said. "So the degree of desperation that we're hearing right now is quite incredible as businesses now look at a whole winter of no sales."

A recent study conductedby the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) says40 percent of Canadians reporttheir mental health has deteriorated since March a figure that rises to 61 per cent among the unemployed.

"So many of the things that perhaps we took for granted before that contribute to our mental health have disappeared. So the social connection with family and friends, the connections we experience through work, a reliable income, things like this," saidCMHA national CEOMargaret Eaton.

Eaton saidshe fearsthat many people are so deep indespair nowthat they can't see past it.

"We know that Crisis Services Canada, which runs the Canadian Suicide Prevention Service, has seen a 200 per cent increase in demand," she said. "So the calls are coming in fast and furious."

MPs call for new suicide hotline

On Dec.11, members of Parliament unanimously passed a motion tabled by MP Todd Doherty calling on the government to immediately launch an easy-to-remember three digit national suicide hotlinenumber 988 to make it simpler for peoplein crisis to reach out for help. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will hold public consultations on the hotline proposalin the new year.

A 988 nationalsuicide hotline is expected to roll out in the United States in 2022.

Eaton said that while the recent arrival of the first COVID-19 vaccines in Canada is cause for optimism, the pandemic's impacts on mental health will outlast the crisis itself. She cited the 2016 wildfire that consumed much ofFort McMurray, Alta. an event that caused stress and anxiety among residents for more than a year afterward.

"After the fires had ended and people had gone back home, that wasn't the end of the mental health issues. People were calling our local CMHA up to 18 months after the originating incident," she said.

"We need to be thinking not just about the moment where people are already struggling, but ...the longer term. And I think there's much that governments can do in terms of providing further support."

Where to get help:

Canada Suicide Prevention Service:1-833-456-4566 (Phone) |45645 (Text, 4 p.m. to midnight ET only)crisisservicescanada.ca

In Quebec (French):Association qubcoise de prvention du suicide: 1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553)

Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 (Phone), Live Chat counselling atwww.kidshelpphone.ca

Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention:Find a 24-hour crisis centre