What We Found When We Asked How Mental Health Messaging Is Reaching Canadians

Earlier this year, we published a blog asking whether mental health messaging was reaching the people who need it. We had questions, and we wanted data. So we partnered with our friends at Caddle to find some.

Canadian mental health research is extensive. Statistics Canada, CIHI, CAMH, the Mental Health Commission, and Mental Health Research Canada publish regularly on prevalence, service access, and system gaps. The picture is consistent: demand is high, the system is strained, and too many Canadians aren’t getting the support they need.

One recent finding from Mental Health Research Canada’s Poll 27 found that nearly half of Canadians who accessed mental health support ended care earlier than planned. Among the reasons cited were feeling misunderstood (12%), unclear expectations (13%), and limited follow-up (9%), communication and relationship failures as much as system ones.

That’s the layer our survey was designed to explore, specifically the communications layer before someone has decided to seek help.

We surveyed 8,516 Canadians on where mental health messaging finds them in daily life, what makes it feel credible, and who it’s missing entirely.

Four key takeaways anchor the report:

• A quarter of Canadians aren’t being reached at all. The largest single response to our first question was the absence of encounter entirely, and it holds steady across every generation.
• Canadians trust the clinical pathway, but clinical tone ranks second-last for credibility. A doctor or healthcare provider referral is the top influence on whether Canadians would trust a mental health resource, across every generation. Yet when asked what tone they find most credible in mental health messaging, clinical or expert-backed content ranks second-last, ahead of only humour or relatability.
• Lived experience is what lands. Personal stories and voices from people who’ve been through it rank highest for credibility across every generation.
• Gen Z warrants a closer look. They’re about as unreached as every other generation, and the only generation where organizational endorsement outranks doctor referral as a trusted influence.

We’ll take a closer look at each of these findings over the next two weeks on the blog. In the meantime, download the Ramp Pulse: Mental Health Communications in Canada here.

If you’d like to talk through what these findings mean for your organization, we’d be glad to. Book a call with us!