We spoke to the teenager trying to get Canadian politicians to care about mental health

17-year-old Noah Irvine lost both his parents to mental illness — his mother to suicide and his father to an overdose.

Irvine wanted to do something about it.

Last February the Guelph, Ont. teenager decided to write every currently sitting member of the House of Commons — all 336 of them — a letter urging them to commit their time and energy toward overhauling the health system to better address Canada’s mental health crisis.

He wrote that 4,000 people die from mental illness every year in Canada, and that in Ontario alone, three people a day die from taking their own lives. He cited a Globe and Mail article that stated the mental health burden in Ontario is 1.5 times higher than that of cancer and heart disease combined — but the province invests only $500 million over 10 years compared to $16 billion in other areas of health care.

He only heard back from 40 MPs, and not all of those replies were good ones.

We called Noah to hear his story, and find out what he learned from sending all those letters.

VICE News: You sent 336 letters and only received 40 responses?

Noah Irvine: Yes, and that’s kind of another component to this story – I’m told that youth aren’t involved in politics and political discussion, and I put a lot out there and attempted to be involved with the political discussion within Canada, and many MPs just said: Not my constituent, not my problem.

What did you write in your letter?

I wrote that 12 years ago, when I was five years old, I lost my mom to suicide. I lost my father two years ago when he died from mental illness, from a drug overdose. And then I provided some statistics in Ontario and Canada that shows how the mental health system is chronically underfunded.

I talked about my dad’s case and how, in my opinion, his death could have been prevented.

At the end of my letter, I challenged them to do more for their constituents, to meet with people who had survived suicide, meet with families of suicide victims, meet with the mentally ill and their caregivers, so they can understand that this issue doesn’t just affect Guelph, but it affects every constituency across the country.

“Canada is one of the worst providers of mental health care of the developed nations.”

When you told your story to MPs, how did they respond?

Of the 40 responses, only half of those were good. Of that, another half were excellent and went above and beyond what I was hoping for.

The Liberal government has said this is a priority, and of those 40 responses only 22 were Liberal. So is it a priority? I don’t really think so. I think they’re just saying it to appease the public. Because believe me, the responses I received from Liberals did not inspire much confidence. But there were some Liberals — MP Rob Oliphant, MP Marco Mendicino and my MP Lloyd Longfield — they care. So there are some that care.

Often the excuse I’ve received from MPs is, well, it’s a provincial issue. OK, that’s nice, but you can still do something in your constituency, you can work with your MLA or MPP. There are ways around the provincial-federal structure. You can do something as a federal member of parliament. In my opinion, just putting it on the provincial government is lazy.

And why is it significant that Trudeau didn’t write you back?

It’s significant because he has made a promise that mental health is the top priority of his government. I would expect that if it is a top priority, he should respond. And also his mother has dealt with mental illness, so he should be even more versed in this than any politician.

What response did you receive from MPs after the media attention on your story?

I received four more letters after Global News covered my story. And Health Minister Jane Philpott did call me and I will be meeting with her in September. I had a meeting with the PMO’s office about mental health — about an hour and a half meeting with them. But what I said to them was, it’s really nice that Minister Philpott has called and I’ve met with you, but this issue affects every aspect of our country’s economy. It affects Defence, Justice, Indigenous and Northern Affairs, and Disabilities, because in some cases if you have a mental illness, you can’t work. It affects a lot of ministries.

What does this experience tell you about MPs that didn’t respond?

It means that they don’t care. When you don’t respond, it shows to me that this issue, no matter how big the Liberal government makes it, it is truly not an issue for them. There are 183 Liberal MPs, and to only get 22 Liberal MP responses shows me they don’t care.

And to anyone who says mental health is a provincial issue, I did send it to the province of Ontario, I sent it to Premier Kathleen Wynne, Ontario MPP Eric Hoskins, NDP health critic Andrea Horwath, Ontario MPP Patrick Brown. I have only received a response from Wynne and Horwath.

What was it like growing up with parents who were experiencing mental health issues?

For the most part I grew up with my grandparents. My mom was around, but she was hospitalized multiple times for psychiatric episodes. She was involved with my childhood but not to the same extent that most mothers are. So my grandparents really took on the main role of parenting, and then when my mom died they adopted me, so they are my legal guardians.

Do you have any good memories you want to share about your parents?

A lot were shrouded with mental illness, but with my mom I can’t really remember her, which is kind of a sad thing to say. With my dad, there are some good memories of going fishing with him, going out into the bush shooting beebee guns at pop cans and laughing at him when he couldn’t hit the can. There were good memories, we laughed and stuff, but it wasn’t the same as most father and son relationships. It was more strained.

“When you get out of a treatment facility, where do you go?”

What could have helped your dad?

I think had the stigma not been around, my dad would have been able to get help earlier, which could have prevented this. I do believe the stigma played a large role in why he didn’t seek treatment and why he didn’t want help, and that festered. And when he was 40 I finally confronted him and I said, ‘you’re sick, you need help,’ and he admitted it, and he finally accepted going into the treatment facility. But I do think if the stigma had not been around, he could have been helped earlier.

He had been hospitalized about four times and went to the emergency room around 10 times. The Mental Health Act assumes everyone is capable of making their own decisions, and it gave him the ability to refuse treatment. My grandfather was most involved in my dad’s treatment, but he was kept in the dark about my dad’s treatment because, after age 18, your information is not given to your family.

I asked my dad to get help in August, but he didn’t get help until late March — that’s the wait time factor. By November, my dad was saying, ‘I can’t do it, I don’t want to do it.’ And I finally had to say to him, ‘dad, I don’t want to see you anymore, because if you’re not going to get help, there’s no point in seeing you anymore.’ And that’s when it really kicked in that he needed to get help.

It sounds like he tried to access the system, but the wait times discouraged him.

Wait times in this country are abysmal. They are some of the worst in the developed world. We don’t spend enough on mental health. We spend I believe it’s seven percent of every dollar on mental health — every dollar that goes to mental health, we spend seven percent. And Australia and New Zealand each spend 10 to 11 percent of every dollar on mental health. Canada is one of the worst providers of mental health care of the developed nations.

When he finally did access the facility, how did that go?

They said that he was amazing, that he was a changed person. Unfortunately though, when you get out of a treatment facility, where do you go? You go right back to your house, where all the things you’ve done in the past are right there, accessible, and he went right back to his old life.

What do you think could have helped in terms of government spending?

If he had been in a group home, or at least away from the triggers of his apartment — the things that would trigger relapse, the people he would do drugs with are right there. If he had been in a group home and they had attempted to get him away from those past triggers, could he still be here? I think he could be. But maybe that’s just because I’m a grieving son.

Have you considered running for a political position yourself?

Yes, I have thought of it, but I haven’t made my mind up yet.

This interview has been edited for style, length, and clarity