PREPARED BY: Epidemiology & Evaluation
DATE: 2025-09-18
SUBJECT: WECHU Mental Health Dashboard
BACKGROUND/PURPOSE
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) actively monitors epidemiological trends in the region. This work directly relates to the Population Health Assessment requirements in the Ontario Public Health Standards (OPHS; 2021) and aligns with the WECHU’s Strategic Plan, specifically the Effective Public Health Practice priority. Mental health is a core component of the WECHU’s mandate based on the OPHS (2021) and regular reporting on trends related to mental health can assist the individuals, community organizations, and municipalities to advance early detection and intervention efforts in our community. The WECHU has updated our Mental Health Dashboard to include more recent information from multiple data sources, including some that were collected independently by the WECHU to better understand the needs of our community.
DISCUSSION
In the Mental Health Dashboard, the information is presented in a way that outlines the overall mental health of youth and adults highlighting selected aspects that impact mental health (e.g., by sex and age) in our community. This is followed by information on risks factors related to poor mental health, specifically health equity-based characteristics that influence the mental health of individuals. As an example, youth that reported being from low socioeconomic status (SES) families were 5.7 times more likely to self-report that they had poor mental health, as compared to those that reported being from high SES families. Finally, the Mental Health Dashboard includes information about the types of outcomes that are observed in relation to poor mental health, including self-harm and substance use. This updated approach to presenting mental health data to our community should assist partners in identifying core areas to focus on when working to mitigate mental health concerns in our community, as well as providing information about health equity-related components that should be considered when developing upstream solutions to mental health.