{"id":10224,"date":"2021-05-19T12:28:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T16:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/?post_type=resource&#038;p=10224"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T20:53:14","slug":"mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Summary Report"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"covid-19-is-amplifying-the-relationship-between-mental-health-and-substance-use\">COVID-19 is amplifying the relationship between mental health and substance use<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A&nbsp;new Leger poll&nbsp;commissioned by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ccsa.ca\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction<\/a> highlights the disproportionate impact of COVID-19-related stressors on people with pre-existing substance use disorders or mental illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survey of more than 4,000 Canadian residents found that respondents with past and current mental health concerns indicated both increased and more problematic substance use.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Up to one in two individuals with an existing substance use disorder reported having moderately severe to severe symptoms of depression since March 2020.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Up to one in two respondents with current mental health symptoms who use cannabis reported increased use, compared to two in five in the general population.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>One in three who use alcohol reported increased use, while one in five reported problematic (high risk) use.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Moderate and severe anxiety symptoms were highest among respondents with lifetime substance use disorder and lifetime mental health diagnoses.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Respondents\u2019 top stressors were their financial situation (14%), social isolation (12%), and the health of family members (11%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Other reports in this series<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-spotlight-on-gender-and-household-size\/\">Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19:&nbsp;Spotlight on Gender and Household Size<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/leger-poll-summary-report-3-spotlight-on-income-employment-access\/\">Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Income, Employment, Access<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID-19 is amplifying the relationship between mental health and substance use A&nbsp;new Leger poll&nbsp;commissioned by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction highlights the disproportionate impact of COVID-19-related stressors on people with pre-existing substance use disorders or mental illness. The survey of more than 4,000 Canadian residents&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":26796,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[892,188,189],"tags":[],"program":[],"program-area":[269,128,57],"audience":[124],"covid-hub-category":[450,451],"health-canada":[],"class_list":["post-10224","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","category-reports","category-research","program-area-covid","program-area-mental-health-and-substance-use","program-area-policy-research","audience-policy-research","covid-hub-category-at-home","covid-hub-category-at-work"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v28.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Summary Report - Mental Health Commission of Canada<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"COVID-19 is amplifying the relationship between mental health and substance use\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Summary Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"COVID-19 is amplifying the relationship between mental health and substance use\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mental Health Commission of Canada\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/mental-health-commission-of-canada\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-26T20:53:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/COVID-or-Substance-use-support-group-with-masks-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1688\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Summary Report - Mental Health Commission of Canada\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/COVID-or-Substance-use-support-group-with-masks-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-19T16:28:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-26T20:53:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"COVID-19 is amplifying the relationship between mental health and substance use\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/resource\\\/mental-health-and-substance-use-during-covid-19-summary-report\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/COVID-or-Substance-use-support-group-with-masks-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/09\\\/COVID-or-Substance-use-support-group-with-masks-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1688,\"caption\":\"A multi ethnic group of young adults are seated in a group therapy session. 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