Kevin, Christine and the Way Forward in Ontario

 

 

The next 18 months were unlike anything he had every experienced.  The committee members - six Liberals, two Conservatives and a New Democrat - set aside their party loyalties and worked single-mindedly toward the same goal.  The let down their guard.  They talked late into the night.  They shared run-down hotel rooms in isolated communities.  As their sense of common cause grew, so did their determination to submit a report the government could not ignore or study to death.

 

 

That report called for a comprehensive mental health and addictions strategy.  Phase I of this strategy was targeted towards children and youth - it made sense that, to start addressing the problem in a sustainable way, you begin by providing youth the best support and education available.  That way, you could hopefully inoculate them against future mental health challenges, or at least help them identify and find the supports they needed not to fall through the cracks.

 

Phase II was to look at occupational mental health; this got stalled during the last term for many reasons, not the least of which was the reality of competitive politics in a minority parliament.

 

I would like to think that Kevin Flynn's appointment as Minister of Labour is an indication that Team Wynne is serious about addressing all things mental health in the workplace, including reducing the stigma, preventing accrued psychological injury and maybe rejigging notions of labour to positively impact customer service, productivity and even innovation.

 

It's all possible.  It's also something Flynn is very much familiar with.  I remember sitting down with him and Christine Pelletier, currently working comms with Children's Mental Health Ontario to talk about what a comprehensive "cognitive labour" strategy would look like.  It was one of many conversations I've had over the years with countless stakeholders in mental health, health, labour, justice, so on and so forth about how that common thread that weaves between sectors - people, behaviour, the minds that shape our activity - must be at the root of any structural solutions.

 

This conversation dove-tails nicely with that of Open Government - the process by which we can fix our structural governance problems and re-engage the electorate in our democratic process in meaningful, dynamic ways.

 

You simply can't have one without the other - what we need is a culture change, and the only way that can happen is by a majority of people inside and outside the system changing their view.  It's where mental fitness and behavioural insights overlap.

 

There's a good chance that a colleague and friend of Kevin's - Progressive Conservative MPP Christine Elliott - will be the next Leader of the Opposition.   There are few people in the Legislature as committed to fixing Ontario's mental health challenges as these two.  There are strong voices in the NDP Party, too - including France Gelinas and Cheri DiNovo.

 

I'm hopeful about what can be done - that collaborative change that starts on the common ground of mental health - can be achieved.

 

Time will tell, I suppose, but I'll say this - who'd have thought we'd be where we are now even three years ago?