Transform care models to deliver better mental health for all

Local contact: Shannon MacDonald, EY Partner, Health Care Digital Solutions

New EY research spotlights four focus areas where health organizations can improve mental health access, experience and outcomes.

In brief

• Interviews with health executives reveal inadequate mental health data collection stalls many efforts to extract actionable data insights.

• Health executives want to see more consistency in the practice of mental health care and more attention on prevention.

• Digital health transformation holds the key to improved mental health care by providing better data insights and fostering an integrated care ecosystem.

In EY’s Canada Consumer Health Survey 2025, more than half of respondents (55%) rated the mental health care system in their country as fair or poor.

Consumers did show significant openness to preventative mental health screenings. Eight in 10 indicated they would be open to an annual mental health checkup if available at no or minimal cost — even more than those who would get a skin check (78%).

Access remains an issue, with 42% indicating that getting care in a timely manner was very or somewhat difficult. In sometimes emotional interviews, even health executives themselves shared their own battles in getting proper mental health care for their loved ones. “I can’t believe the number of calls I get from people, even strangers, who say my daughter or son is really struggling,” said one health executive. 

Across the globe, long wait times for mental health services are not unusual, too often leading to deteriorating symptoms that present as crisis cases in the emergency room.^{1, 2}

The new EY research spotlights a path forward to deliver better outcomes and experiences via a system that demystifies the journey, is more transparent about costs and outcomes, and helps connect people to the right providers at the optimal time throughout their care.

Nearly all the health care experts interviewed said better data collection and insights are critical to help countries understand populations’ and individuals’ mental health needs so they can intervene more effectively and drive toward more measurement-based care.

Impatient stakeholders aren’t seeing the value

However, health care systems have not convinced health care users of the value of mental health care delivery. One in three (33%) Canadian respondents to the EY survey said they can take care of the problem themselves, while another 17% said professional help doesn’t work.

The skepticism could be attributed to the journey itself, as patients indicate they are confused about how to enter the system. More than one third (34%) said they were unsure of where to start looking for help with their mental health.

Our findings show Canadian respondents are challenged by access, cultural barriers and a lack of understanding what type of care they need, whether it be a psychologist who can provide talk therapy, a psychiatrist who can prescribe medication, a peer counsellor or someone in between. 

The solution lies in digital health transformation.

1. Improve mental health data collection and analytics for better and more equitable outcomes

While quality data collection has lagged in the traditional health care system, mental health data collection in general is woefully inadequate, according to interviews with executives across the globe. As a result, health organizations often lack a true sense of their population’s needs, and the insight needed to proactively intervene at the individual level.

Without that data infrastructure, health organizations are unable to apply basic analytics or AI tools to gather insights on patient demand and needs. As health systems try to build this infostructure, they should be guided by governance policies that acknowledge the unique data privacy regulations over health and mental health data, and determine how to use the data in ways that ensure trust. When integrating systems and applying AI, that governance will be important to avoid the introduction of bias or hallucinations that could exacerbate existing challenges.

The survey also found that global consumers are open to digital tools that can help with mental health, as long as health organizations are transparent and help them see the value of using digital health technologies to connect them with providers, peer groups and other supports.

More than half (57%) of Canadian respondents said they would feel comfortable using genetic tests that show whether they are predisposed to have certain mental health conditions and 53% would feel comfortable using digital technologies that collect and share their mental health data with providers.

Health organizations need to embed privacy and security in their design of all infostructure[DJ1] , apps and algorithms. Patients want to know their data is encrypted end to end and that it will not leave the systems they have approved to access their data.

Louise Pichette, Director of Health Sciences at MaRS Discovery District, is keeping watch on some startups that are tapping into personalized medicine on this front. “We’re seeing companies use AI and other tools to parse through treatment responses of people with certain mental health conditions and predict how they might respond to various approaches.”

But she also echoed the need for data that is more comprehensive. “A lot of our models, both from a technology and AI perspective, are built off of data that is not representative of the whole population. There are a lot of data gaps in terms of postpartum depression and a lot of mental health connections that affect women. And I haven’t seen a lot of companies coming out in those spaces. So I think that’s an area that’s ripe for innovation.”

2. Transform care models for better triage, greater prevention and integration

Interviews and survey results highlight the barriers to accessing timely mental health care, barriers that can result in inefficiency and waste. When people are not routed appropriately, too many progress to a crisis situation, focusing the system resources on inpatient beds and acute care. Meanwhile, issues that could be resolved earlier with less suffering, cost and burden to the system go unaddressed.

Interviews highlight the ability of integrated mental health care teams to provide the right level of care when their clients need it, stepping care up and down, especially when many who are struggling don’t know what they need.

“There’s been so much fragmentation and siloing of services. The idea here is to bring everybody together in a community and let’s work together to offer the service to a young person so they don’t have to figure out all the different places they need to go,” said Karen Tee, Co-executive director of Foundry, which uses an integrated model. “[Foundry enables patients to] just go to one place and they get everything they need there, whether it’s counselling or seeing a GP for a cold or getting vocational services or just talking to a peer support worker.”

Evan Romanow, Deputy Minister of Mental Health and Addiction for the Government of Alberta, shared similar sentiments: “There shouldn’t be a gatekeeper at the door, we’ve got too much of that. If someone makes it to a door, they need navigation support and that knowledge of what the next step might look like.”

The survey suggests general practitioners or primary care providers can be an entry point to the mental health care system, with 60% of Canadian respondents saying they found their regular medical doctor extremely or very useful in getting support for their mental health. But taking advantage of this opportunity would require integrated data platforms and a more coordinated ecosystem focused on prevention.

Another digital avenue for health organizations to pursue is to build intuitive, helpful digital front doors via online portals or apps that help make the mental health care experience better and more effective, connecting them to care when they need and clarifying how to get help. More than threequarters (77%) of Canadian respondents said they would be happy to have mental health support virtually or digitally, even more than said they would prefer a mental health professional’s office (65%).

3. Show value and progress to citizens and stakeholders

Nearly half of Canadian survey respondents (46%) reported financial reasons as a barrier to mental health care. If they are already concerned about affordability and not convinced of the value, health organizations could make gains by educating the public and other stakeholders about the value of mental health care, helping them understand treatment decisions and how realistic progress looks.

The lack of measurement-based care hampers providers’ ability to make the case to citizens that mental health care services are valuable. And other stakeholders point to a lack of accountability when it comes to delivering quality mental health outcomes.

Health leaders also voiced a desire for more standardization in the delivery of mental health care, such as has been done clinically with conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes.

“We have really care-focused clinical practice guidelines and support for primary care doctors and teams to be able to assess, identify, screen and then decide and initiate treatment with clear escalation pathways for folks,” said Dr. Sacha Bhatia, Vice President of primary and community-based care for Ontario Health in Canada. “We don’t have that in the same way with depression and anxiety, and that’s critical.”

Executives see potential in technology to reduce some of the variation in standards of care. “With technology and artificial intelligence, you could align practice so there are not those deviations in care,” said Ron Johnson, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for NL Health.

Nearly half (47%) who have used mental health services changed their mental health professional, with the top reasons cited being that they were not satisfied with their progress (43%).

Mental health experts also said that more work can be done to help the public understand what type of care is appropriate when it comes to their mental health.

“As there is collectively less stigma, and more discussion in media, families and workplaces, our biggest challenge is actually defining what we’re talking about. What is psychiatric illness vs. mental health and wellness,” said Romanow. “We have to not overly medicalize what doesn’t need to be overmedicalized. You don’t need to run to see a psychiatrist if you need to have an open conversation with a family member or a friend.” 

Kym Kaufmann, CEO of the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence, added: “There is a substantial demand for psychiatric services nationwide, and it is imperative we ensure the availability of these professionals to help individuals with mental illness. Developing robust systems of care, which include access to evidence-based, clinical programs in community, will help individuals lead satisfying and meaningful lives.”

Summary

By age 75, half the global population is expected to develop one or more mental disorders during their lifetime.^3,4

Post COVID-19, countries around the globe have declared crises as their youth and adult populations struggled with increased rates of depression, loneliness, anxiety and other challenges.⁵

The lack of investment worldwide in preventative mental health care does not mean countries are escaping these costs, as the costs can be seen in lost productivity and other societal impacts. Anyone who has waited with a child or other loved one in a mental health crisis knows how terrifying it can be, and how confusing it can be to know where to go, whom to trust, what kind of help is needed, what it will cost and whether it will work. Post-pandemic, the costs to society, families, providers and health systems are evident. More effective, transparent, preventative and affordable mental health care journeys are the way forward.