In the workplace, mental illness has reached crisis proportions. According to the World Health Organization, “when compared with all other diseases (such as cancer and heart disease), mental illness ranks first in terms of causing disability in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe … accounting for 25% of all disabilities.”

One in five Canadians currently suffers from a major mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety or substance abuse. Seventy-two percent of Canadians with a mental health problem receive no mental health care over the course of a year, but 80% of those individuals visit their family physician in the same year. Only 1 in 8 receives the right diagnosis and treatment. (Kirby Commission, Senate Report on Mental Health, “Out of the Shadows at Last”, May 2006).

3.5 in 6 individuals who use the program are at high Diagnostic Risk for a disorder. Helping individuals get the right diagnosis and treatment leads to better outcomes for everyone. This high prevalence rate shows that the target group, those with the highest potential for decreasing human suffering and reducing the spiralling costs related to presenteeism, absenteeism, inappropriate usage of prescription drugs, and short and long-term disabilities due to mental illness, is using the program.