In 2012, about one in six Canadians over the age of 15—about 4.9 million people—said they had a need for mental health care in the previous 12 months, according to Statistics Canada.
Among these, 67% said their mental health care needs were met and 12% said their needs were unmet.
The remaining 21% had partially met needs, as they received some mental health care, but perceived a need for more.
Counselling, at 12%, was the most common type of mental health care need cited by Canadians aged 15 and older. It was also the need that was least often reported as met, with 65% of those with a counselling need perceiving that need as met.
A need for medication was reported less often (10%). It was also the need most likely to be reported as met, with 91% of individuals with a medication need perceiving that it was met.
Having a mental or substance use disorder, experiencing higher levels of distress, or having two or more chronic physical health conditions were positively associated with reporting a need for mental health care.
Among individuals who perceived a mental health care need, only higher distress was associated with a greater likelihood of having an unmet (versus met) need.
For those who said that they had an unmet or partially met mental health care need, the majority (73%) reported personal circumstances, such as being too busy, as a reason that their mental health care needs were not met. Almost one in five (19%) attributed their unmet need to features of the health care system (for example, help was not readily available).