Demand for mental health services has increased, pushing some providers to their limits

Mental health providers say demand for their services has increased in the wake of the pandemic, with long waiting lists, few affordable options and increasingly tight therapists.

According to a recent survey by the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Ontario, a quarter of all people in Ontario were seeking mental health support in Februarya huge increase from the nine percent of respondents who said they had asked for help in a similar survey conducted by the organization two years ago.

Nearly half of respondents from the february poll said their mental health had deteriorated since the start of the pandemic and almost a quarter said they consumed higher amounts of cannabis, alcohol and tobacco than before the pandemic.

What it doesn’t capture, however, is the number of people who were turned down by a provider, either because of a full patient list or because the provider was full that day. Many advice centers and clinics in London, Ont., called by CBC News, had pre-recorded messages warning new clients of potentially long wait times and late responses to their inquiries.

Rising demand

Jordan Thomas, social worker-therapist and clinical director of the London Center for Trauma Therapy, opened in October 2020 as the pandemic was in full swing.

She was soon inundated with clients looking for support they couldn’t find anywhere else.

“The pandemic and the enforced isolation and the lack of fulfilling opportunities and activities have really exasperated their pre-existing conditions a lot,” she said.

“What we’ve seen is a lot of depression, a lot of despair, a lack of vitality, a loss of their sense of optimism about the future.”

“There has been a real increase in the number of people seeking mental health support.”

This increase is also seen in the number of people calling the CHMA Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services Crisis and Support Line. The service saw 26% growth in call volumes in the first year of the pandemic, growing from 39,229 calls in its 2019-20 baseline to 49,419 calls in 2020-21.

Crisis line call volumes increased

Part of the increase can be explained by the strict quarantine guidelines that were imposed at the time. In-person visits to the organization’s crisis center fell from 3,618 to 2,617 from 2019-20 to 2020-21.

However, as COVID-19 restrictions eased, people started showing up in person again at the same levels as before the pandemic, but the calls continued to come in.

There were 51,769 calls to the helpline in 2020-21 (a 16% increase from 2019-20) and 22,152 from April to September 2022, on track to surpass the previous year.

The increase is similar to what is seen in hospitals, where there has been a deluge of patients following the pandemic. Beth Mitchell, co-executive director of addiction and mental health services at CMHA London, Ont., CMHA Thames Valley, said many providers are overwhelmed and their staff are continuing to work despite the growing risk of ‘burnout.

Service providers pushed to their limits

“The way we’ve operated for the past two years has been in a bit of a crisis mode,” she said. “I think we’re just getting back to normal now, but what will ‘normal’ look like?”

“You can only provide good service if you take care of yourself, so as an employer we certainly try to help people take a break, help them with their schedule, if they are sick, allow them to stay at home,” she said.

Mitchell said the pandemic was energizing at first as it forced providers to find new ways to help their clients, either through virtual therapy sessions or delivering hot meals to clients through windows. but as the pandemic continued amid ever-increasing demand, burnout loomed.

“If it’s relentless, no matter who you are, what you do, or how strong you are, there’s a lot of wear and tear on you personally,” she said.

Now that the pandemic is largely over, Mitchell said inflation and the rising cost of living are starting to add to the growing list of factors that worsen people’s mental health.

“For some people it hits them harder than COVID,” she said, adding that while she’s feeling quite optimistic about the future, things are likely to get worse before they start to get better. regarding the mental health status of the community.

“The real impact might take us a little while to see because people are barely getting through the day right now,” Mitchell said.

“We are quite cautious in our forecasts, but we feel [the after-effects of the pandemic are] going to last in the field of mental health much longer than three years.”