Reducing harm of lost work on the brain

Don Drummond, chief economist for TD Financial Group, will discuss productivity and the GDP at a Toronto Board of Trade breakfast Wednesday morning, but not in the way you would expect. His audience will be the Psychology Foundation of Canada and he will be talking about the toll that unemployment and mental illness take on the Canadian economy.

Mental illness costs the Canadian economy about $33 billion each year – about 2.1 per cent of GDP – in absenteeism and lost productivity. Disability from mental illness amounts to 4 to 12 per cent of all payroll costs, and mental health claims are the fastest growing category of disability costs for employers and insurance companies. And yet the connection between the economy and mental health is often called into question.


What I question about this quote is namely the total amount they list as the issue?

$33 billion only includes missed work and reduced ability to work yet it doesn't include those who have lost their jobs and are now beginning to get mentally ill due to lost homes, lost nutrition, increases health problems and lost love which are all vital to our well-being and recovery from the problems of economic demise that some people in this country are seeing.

We need to focus on helping these individuals with not only economic support but also support relating to their general well-being such as happiness. These could be supports that provide recreational sports for the family to attend in community settings at reduced prices to help keep our communities active and socializing through this economic downturn. It is more important then we know.

We should also be funding work projects for all not just construction projects as this only gets back to work a small part of an entire country. It is more then just construction workers that have lost their jobs.

What is the cost to the country of the lost homes, lives to depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses that result from lost identity as was mentioned in the article? This can take over the brain and change it at a biological level making it very difficult to bounce back without the support, love and compassion of those around them. We all need to help take care of each through this tough time and sadly, it doesn't seem to be happening with our government and their delay in deciding what to do about EI. What is there to decide?

What other help has been provided to those whom have lost their jobs in this economic recession? What about those who can't feed their family? There has been marked increase in food bank visits this year while they are more strapped then ever? Is this the face of a caring and loving government who is listening to its citizens? You decide!

reducing harm of alcohol

In the recent past there has been much up-rise after the dismissal of David Nutt: Drug Adviser for the UK for indicating that alcohol is more harmful then cannabis, LSD and MDMA. All he is doing is practicing harm reduction by both telling the facts about the drugs and not going on myths. Nutt was going in the right direction but due to undue influence his presence is not welcome as he will end the drug war and thus for whatever reason the UK are becoming increasingly paranoid about drugs and their uses there although they have horrible problems with alcohol including violence.

This brings us to the harms of alcohol. I am not going to say we should prohibit it due to how bad it is but rather that we should put more controls on it while lessening those on the other less harmful drugs so that when people turn to using, they turn to something that won't hurt them as much.

We have to admit that drug use is part of being human and there isn't anything wrong with that. We have to begin to be truthful like Nutt was for speaking his mind about alcohol and that yes, it too is a drug and it is harmful. Most of our problems in society surrounding drugs is alcohol and tobacco.

While tobacco has received increased controls such as not being able to be visible to children, the next step is to be removed from having actors smoking all the time and having other tobacco products available without having the added chemicals. Tobacco is a natural plant like cannabis, opium and coca and has purpose however, the way our use has become has lead to it becoming very toxic and more addictive then simply just nicotine on it's own.

To begin reducing the harm done from alcohol, we have to stop promoting it. We shouldn’t do this for any drug, it should not be portrayed on TV as having great powers to turn you into a fashion model and a plastic surgeon as Captain Morgan claims “he” can do for you. We need to begin admitting that alcohol is a drug just like the illegal ones and therefore, we need to come to rational and pragmatic ways of dealing with drug use, abuse and addiction in society.