CMHA offering education and support for municipal election candidates

By Lee Griffi

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is offering municipal election candidates in Ontario education when it comes to mental health, addictions and homelessness. They are also worried about the mental health of candidates hitting the pavement on the campaign trail.

CMHA Ontario is launching what is calls the CMHA Briefing Room, available at cmhabriefingroom.ca. The resource includes wellness tips to help candidates navigate the demands of a campaign, along with practical information about mental health, addictions and homelessness, and how community-based supports like CMHAs can help address these challenges.

“This isn’t anything we have done before,” explained CMHA Thames Valley CEO, Pam Tobin. “It was created really to support candidates during this campaign. There is a lot of persistent misinformation out there about mental health, addiction, homelessness, encampments, community safety, all those things.”

She added the association felt it was important to provide candidates with evidence-based information candidates can use to answer questions they receive on the campaign trail. Tobin said there has been some interest shown by some candidates in Oxford County.

“They can enter the site and look at different fact sheets we’ve created. We don’t necessarily take questions from them but they can look at a wide range of information we have available. Some of those thing may be supporting your own mental health on the campaign trail. It could be about housing and homelessness in the region or community safety and services. There are also fact sheets about encampments and housing crisis.”

Information is also available on the topic of involuntary treatment for addicts, something Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said he isn’t ruling out.

“"I'd be open to it as long as we can help them and help the communities,” Ford said recently. “ There has to be a point with some good consultation with the mayors. Do we force these people into treatment? We have a duty as a society to take care of these people and make sure they get the help that they need, but I want to have that discussion with the mayors right now because they're very, very frustrated,” he added.

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“Running for municipal office means answering questions about mental health, addictions and homelessness. Some you'll expect; some you won't. So, this election, we'll make sure you're prepared.”

The Briefing Room is intended to be a practical resource for candidates, municipal leaders, media and the public. It provides accessible information about:

Mental health and addictions: What communities are experiencing and what the evidence tells us about effective responses

Homelessness and housing: The relationship between housing, homelessness, mental health and addictions

Community safety: How mental health and addictions intersect with community safety and what approaches are supported by evidence

Solutions and policy: The role of community mental health and evidence-informed approaches on key policy issues

“The resource will help municipal candidates understand how they can take action and where broader provincial and federal support is needed, recognizing that municipalities can’t address these challenges alone. Municipalities, the province and the federal government – along with the mental health and addictions sector – bear responsibility, and effective responses require co-ordination, sustained investment and strong community-based services,” explained Tobin.

When a candidate accesses the site, they are able to leave their email address in order to receive weekly updates from the CMHA.

“They could be new and evolving issues in the community or just keeping them informed as they go,” said Tobin, who added forced treatment does currently exist but isn’t successful although it comes from a place of compassion and sometimes desperation. “Theres no evidence (it) is effective. What some of the research actually shows is there is potential harm and a higher risk of overdose after treatment.”

She said there are many addicts looking to receive treatment voluntarily but there are no spaces available.

“To move straight into involuntary treatment without support for folks who are looking to get into treatment, there has to be a strong foundation put in place before involuntary treatment can be legislated. That may be new facilities or expanded facilities.”

Adults in Ontario can be detained for up to 72 hours at a psychiatric facility under what is called a Form 1 Application. A 14-day hold refers to a Form 3 Certificate of Involuntary Admission, which permits detention for up to two weeks if the statutory requirements are met.

“Mental health and addiction are health care issues, but municipalities have been pressed to play a key role in their communities. Across Ontario, municipal leaders are doing their best to respond to these challenges, often working with limited resources and within complex systems,” explained a CMHA press release.

According to the Association of Municipalities in Ontario, 85,000 people were estimated to be experiencing homelessness in Ontario in 2025. Municipalities contributed approximately 67 per cent of housing funding and nearly one quarter of homelessness funding last year, while total spending on homelessness programs across governments reached $2.3 billion.

Visit cmhabriefingroom.ca to learn more.