Almost half of Canadians don’t consider mental health illness part of disability spectrum, RBC poll
Posted September 29, 2018 9:25 am.
Last Updated September 29, 2018 2:58 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — While we’ve come a long way as a society when it comes to acknowledging the seriousness of mental health challenges, a new poll suggests many of us do not consider things like depression or anxiety to be disabilities and do not know how health plans define disability.
Two in three who participated in the Royal Bank of Canada Insurance poll believe things like multiple sclerosis and injuries due to physical accidents qualify as disabilities, yet 47 per cent of people who responded to this survey say they don’t consider depression to be a disability.
Maria Winslow, senior director of life and health at RBC Insurance, says the most surprising finding was that only half of those surveyed know how disability is defined by their health benefit plan and she says that it is crucial for people to sit down and learn about how they are covered.
“Only half know how their benefit defines disability, only one in three say they really understood their plan very well, and the most staggering number was that one if five did not know anything about their plan beyond the fact that they had coverage,” Winslow tells NEWS 1130.
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She says almost a third of claims at her company deals are related to mental health, and that understanding what one’s benefit plan covers and how much of it is perhaps the most important part of it.
“These results really demonstrate how vitally important it is that we continue to generate awareness around mental health and specifically around the impacts that a mental illness can have on someone’s day to day,” Winslow says.
“You want to know how much you’re covered for and think about whether or not you could live off of that reduced income.”
Winslow also says that people need to know what programs are at their disposal and what the options are should they become ill at some, as well as to develop a “trusted network.”
“[There is a] bias that disabilities are these large catastrophic, one-time events that happen, and mostly physical in nature,” she adds. “Mental health is still health and it can lead to needing to take some time off work if you have a mental illness.”
