Dr. Sharon Lambert:

On the interagency part, I have already said that there are missing partners. Sometimes the mental health services are not there. It is about re-examining that medical model of mental health. There are lots of committees that happen in different departments where it is fundamentally a mental health issue, and often there no psychologists or psychotherapists on those committees. There is somebody representing the medical aspect, which is great, but there has to be psychological and social understanding of factors. In terms of prevention, it is the first three years. We know those risk factors. We know there are people who are disproportionately impacted. Those are people who are parenting alone, and who have a disability in the household. The data is clear. When you look at the data from the Health Research Board, there are two groups of people who use drugs in equal amounts. Those are people with lots of money and people with no money. They are using exactly the same amount but one of those groups is experiencing significant harm as a result of their use. That is simply and purely because of economic status. It is clear that we have to reduce social inequality because when we do, people are happier and healthier, and they participate more. We really have to understand why young people are not participating in education. There is lots of discrimination and racism against people because of their ethnicity and sexuality. There are children who do not go to school because it is a very unhappy place. The protective factors need to be improved and the risk factors need to be reduced. We have known for a very long time what those are.