Nov 25, 2021 – Mental Health Research Canada (MHRC) today released the results of the ninth study in their ongoing series of surveys devoted to tracking and exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canadians’ mental health. This wave of the study was conducted from Late October to Early November 2021. The study will continue with new surveys every 6-8 weeks until March 2022. The key findings of this study include:
- The new proof of vaccination mandate has had a positive impact on the mental health of 47% of Canadians polled, with 25% saying it has had a very positive impact.
- Among the small minority of Canadians who are unvaccinated, half (47%) indicated that the proof of vaccination mandate has had a negative effect on their mental health.
- Overall, anxiety levels among Canadians are holding steady, although lower by 2 points since August 2021 (23%, from 25%).
- However, suicide ideation remains high: 14% of respondents said they have thought about suicide in the past year, with 3% having planned a suicide attempt.
- Accessing mental health support services has increased 4 percentage points over the past seven months, from 18% to 22%. Before COVID, approximately 12% of Canadians were accessing services.
These are just some of the results from the latest wave of MHRC’s ongoing survey series studying the mental health of Canadians during the pandemic, conducted with the support of Health Canada. It is based on an online survey conducted among a randomly-selected, reliable sample of N=4,1008 adult Canadians from October 22 to November 3, 2021. On behalf of MHRC, Pollara Strategic Insights designed, conducted, and analysed the results of this survey and the previous surveys in this ongoing series. The next survey installment will be in field soon. Stay tuned for more results in the months ahead.
Please visit the MHRC survey reporting hub to download the full or abridged research report for this poll or any of the other polls in this series. In addition, you can also visit MHRC’s interactive data portal to explore tracking data from this survey series across a number of the study’s key measures.
