Mental health in Atlantic Canada : Santé mentale au Canada atlantique : un portrait

Mental Health in Atlantic Canada: A Snapshot To promote and protect the health of Canadians through leadership, partnership, innovation and action in public health. [...] The first step toward action is to understand trends in mental health and mental illness in Atlantic Canada, and the prevalence of risk and protective factors. [...] It is recognized as an essential part of our general health and well-being.1 The definition of mental health used by the Public Health Agency of Canada is shown on the right. [...] Self-rated mental health is a useful, general indicator for monitoring mental health in our population.4 Recent data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) shows us that the percentage of people in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Prince Edward Island (PEI) and Nova Scotia (NS) who rate their own mental health as very good or excellent is comparable to that of Canada as a whole (Figure 1) [...] Potentially compounding these issues is the fact that people living in rural areas also experience challenges related to access and availability of mental health services.8 Recent data from the CCHS (2009-2010) suggests that people living in rural environments are less likely to report their own mental health as very good or excellent compared with those living in urban environments in each of the