What are the top mental health concerns for Canadians?
Integrated digital care is helping to break down barriers to mental health support for young Canadians, according to a new report.
More than half of Canadians under 35 who accessed digital therapy recovered from symptoms of anxiety (52 per cent) and depression (51 per cent) after just three sessions of digital cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), reports GreenShield.
Young Canadians are highly engaged with digital health solutions, with almost one in three users under the age of 35.
“Young Canadians are telling us—through both data and lived experience—that the current system isn’t consistently meeting their needs,” says Zahid Salman, President and CEO of GreenShield.
Stress, anxiety, and depression are the top three mental health concerns for Canadians, according to the report.
“The future of health care must be integrated, inclusive, and accountable," says Salman, emphasizing the importance of "uniting coverage and care into one seamless experience."
Young workers have lowest mental health scores, according to a previous report.
Trustworthy digital health tools for mental well-being
For employers looking to integrate digital technology into their mental health benefits offerings, they must have “TEQUILA” in mind, according to the research paper titled "Digital interventions in mental health: An overview and future perspectives" in Internet Intervention.
“Necessities and challenges to create a beneficial future of digital health technologies. To build trustworthy digital health tools for mental well-being, several key factors must be addressed to ensure efficacy, safety, and user confidence,” according to the study.
“This acronym serves as a foundation for developing future recommendations on integrating technology into mental health care, drawing on the author's expertise in the field. The seven parameters that build TEQUILA were selected based on a) their potential to improve methodology in the field, b) their proven value in former studies, and c) their theoretical significance.”
A previous survey found that 80 per cent of Canadian workers were absent from work because their job demands or work environment caused or exacerbated their mental health issues.
