The Remember Rebuild Team has been working hard to gather and analyze data on mental health and substance use in Saskatchewan. While our analysis is still underway, the two charts below are a great snapshot of some of analytical trends we’ve identified.
This map shows the proportion of people who responded to the national mental health surveys during Covid-19, from October 2020 to March 2022, who indicated that they experienced adverse mental health symptoms and ‘problematic’ substance use (experiencing both, we termed, dual experience). Of all provinces and region of Atlantic Canada, Saskatchewan had the highest proportion of those who experienced both adverse mental health and problematic substance use.
The next graph focuses on Saskatchewan and how residents fared during the multiple waves for the COVID-19 pandemic.
This chart shows the proportion of people in Saskatchewan who indicated they experienced adverse mental health symptoms and problematic substance use (dual experience) when a certain variant of concern of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was dominant. The highest proportion of dual experience, almost one in four, was recorded in mid-2021 (July to September 2021) when Delta variant was the most dominant.
This was an early preview of the exciting research we have underway. Stay tuned for more updates including analysis of a population survey on the wider impacts of COVID-19 we conducted in Saskatchewan in Summer / Fall 2023 and interviews with community organizations across the province.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Remember.rebuildsk@usask.ca