Ontario Children and Youth Mental Health

One in Ten (9%) Ontario Adults Self-Report Having a Child Under 18 With Mental, Emotional or Behavioural Problems

Toronto, ON -- According to a new poll commissioned by Children's Mental Health Ontario and released by Ipsos-Reid, a large majority (88%) of Ontarians says that mental health treatment for children and youth should be an important priority for the provincial government including 67 percent who say it is "very important". At the same time, two-thirds (67%) of Ontarians think that provincial government services and funding for mental health services for children and youth are not adequate, including 14 percent who say the province's services and funding are "not at all adequate".

Furthermore, one in ten (9%) Ontario adults self-report having a child under 18 with mental, emotional or behavioural problems and 32 percent say that they know of someone with a child in this situation.

These are the findings of two consecutive waves of an Ipsos-Reid/CMHO poll conducted between May 8 to May 10, 2001 and May 15 to May 17, 2001. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 600 adult Ontarians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 4.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Ontario population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Ontario population according to the 1996 Census data.

Nine in Ten (88%) Ontario Adults Believe That The Mental Health of Ontario's Children and Youth Should Be an Important Priority for the Provincial Government

A full 88 percent of Ontarians believe that the mental health of children and youth should be an important priority for the provincial government, including two-thirds (67%) who believe that the mental health of children and youth should be a "very important" priority for the province and 21 percent who believe this issue should be an "important" priority. An additional 10 percent believe the mental health of Ontario's children and youth should be a "somewhat important" priority for the government.

• Women (74%) are more likely than men (60%) to say that the mental health of the province's children and youth should be a "very important" priority for the provincial government.
• Two-thirds (64%) of Ontarians believe that the mental health of children and youth is "as important" as physical health, while over one-third (35%) believe that mental health is "more important". Only 1 percent believe that children and youth's mental health is "less important" than their physical health.
• Men (39%) are more likely than women (31%) to think that children's and youth's mental health is "more important" than physical health.

And, Two-Thirds (67%) Believe Government Services and Funding For the Mental Health of Ontario's Children and Youth Are Not Adequate

Two-thirds (67%) of Ontarians believe that the services and funding for the mental health of children and youth in the province are "not at all adequate" (14%) or "not very adequate" (53%). Only one-quarter (26%) think the services/funding is "adequate", while just 2 percent think that they are "more than adequate".

• Women (19%) are more likely than men (9%) to think that children and youth are provided with "not at all adequate" government services and funding for their mental health, including emotional and behavioural problems.

Moreover, one-third (34%) of Ontarians believe that mental health services for the province's children and youth should be a "more important" government priority than mental health services for adults, while an additional two-thirds (64%) believe that these services for children and youth should be at least "as important" as services for adults.

• Men (36%) are slightly more likely than women (31%) to think that the mental health services for the province's children and youth should be "more important" than mental health services for adults as a government priority.
• Residents of Toronto (40%) are more likely than those living in the Toronto suburbs (29%) to believe that mental health services for children and youth should be "more important" than services for adults.

One in Ten (9%) Ontario Adults Self-Report Having A Child Under 18 With Mental, Emotional or Behavioural Problems

When asked "do you personally have a child 18 years or younger, or know of anyone in your immediate circle of family and friends that has a child 18 years or younger, with mental, emotional or behavioural problems", one in ten (9%) Ontario adults report having a child under the age of 18 with mental, emotional or behavioural problems. A further 32 percent say that they know someone with a child in this situation.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900