{"id":21139,"date":"2021-09-20T05:56:02","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T09:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mentalhealthcommission.ca\/?post_type=resource&#038;p=21139"},"modified":"2025-08-28T09:47:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T13:47:31","slug":"leger-poll-summary-report-3-spotlight-on-income-employment-access","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/mentalhealthcommission.ca\/resource\/leger-poll-summary-report-3-spotlight-on-income-employment-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: Spotlight on Income, Employment, Access"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"covid-19-continues-to-seriously-impact-mental-health-and-substance-levels-especially-among-people-with-low-income-or-without-work\">COVID-19 continues to seriously impact mental health and substance levels, especially among people with low income or without work.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A&nbsp;new report&nbsp;from the series of Leger polls undertaken 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> shows the disproportionate negative impact COVID-19 is having on people who live with low incomes or who are unemployed or recently lost their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survey of more than 8,500 people in Canada also provides insights into the pandemic\u2019s impact on those who have pre-existing substance use disorders or mental illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key findings:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>People with low income or who are unemployed\/laid-off report increased substance use and higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.<\/li><li>One in four people with low income or who were unemployed\/laid-off said finances were a top pandemic stressor (compared to one in seven in the general population).<\/li><li>People with low income or who were unemployed\/laid-off have faced more barriers in accessing mental health and substance use treatment services.<\/li><li>The most common barriers to services included financial constraints, not having readily available help, not knowing how and where to get help, and long wait-lists.<\/li><\/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-summary-report\/\">Mental Health and Substance Use During COVID-19: First Summary Report<\/a><\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COVID-19 continues to seriously impact mental health and substance levels, especially among people with low income or without work. A&nbsp;new report&nbsp;from the series of Leger polls undertaken by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction shows the disproportionate negative impact COVID-19 is having on people who live&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18643,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[809,188],"tags":[],"program":[],"program-area":[269,128],"audience":[123,124],"covid-hub-category":[],"health-canada":[845,834],"class_list":["post-21139","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-professional-resources","category-reports","program-area-covid","program-area-mental-health-and-substance-use","audience-for-employers-and-employees","audience-policy-research","health-canada-low-income","health-canada-professionals"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.3 (Yoast SEO v28.3) - 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