A new report suggests parents who miss work to help children suffering from anxiety cost the Ontario economy $421-million dollars a year.
The report was released today by Children’s Mental Health Ontario.
The analysis was conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto’s Canadian Centre for Health Economics, springing from work done by C-M-H-O in 2017.
That research showed that one in four parents in the province reported missing work to care for a child with anxiety issues.
The latest report takes that data and quantifies its cost to the province’s economy.
The head of the C-M-H-O, which represents Ontario’s publicly-funded child and youth mental health centres, says it’s a “huge loss to the economy.”
Kim Moran says the statistics underscore the need to hire more clinical staff across the province to provide immediate mental health care and cut long wait lists.
Premier Doug Ford has promised to spend 1.9 billion dollars on mental health care over the next decade, which he says will help cut wait times for youth who need treatment.