Research by Centre for Addiction and Mental Health indicates rise in reports of loneliness, depression, alcohol consumption during COVID-19 outbreak.
A new survey on mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic suggests severe anxiety levels are starting to drop, but Canadians are still struggling with stress and uncertainty as the pandemic continues. 2:03
Findings from a new survey by Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) indicate the pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health of Canadians.
“What’s unique about this pandemic is it affects everyone,” says Samantha Wells, senior director of the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH.
“It’s pervasive and everyone is being affected in some way, shape or form.”
The study sampled more than 2,000 Canadians — about half in early May and the other half in late May — and asked a series of questions to determine the effects of the pandemic on mental health. It was a collaboration between CAMH and Delvinia, a global research technology company.
The online survey included English-speaking Canadians aged 18 and older, reflecting the distribution of the Canadian population in terms of age, gender and region. (The survey has a comparable margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.)
It found that 20 per cent of Canadians surveyed say they have been experiencing loneliness during the pandemic. One in five also reported feeling moderate to severe levels of anxiety, due to factors such as job loss and fear of contracting the virus.
Stacy Ann Buchanan, a Toronto actress, filmmaker and mental health advocate, has experienced the study’s findings first-hand. She has struggled with anxiety most of her life, and knows how difficult it can be to deal with.
“Everything was spiralling out of control and I couldn’t control what was happening to my body and to my mind,” she says.
Buchanan says the feelings brought on by the stress and isolation of the pandemic in recent weeks triggered a spike in her anxiety.
“It’s feeling overwhelmed and also feeling like I’m not being productive,” says Buchanan. “And realizing, OK, this is not just happening to me, this is collective.”
CAMH staff were particularly surprised, however, by one result in the survey. When the second group was surveyed two weeks after the first sampling, the percenta