Status of Women committee  I'll start, and maybe Dr. Johnson can continue. I think there is no doubt.... One of things that I addressed was psychosocial, social, environmental, and developmental issues affecting weight. Clearly messaging and how it's perceived, how it's shared, and how it's communicated amongst teenagers has the potential to negatively affect people's sense of body image, how they perceive themselves.

Status of Women committee  Maybe I can start, if that's okay. I think you raise really interesting points that are relevant not only to eating disorders but to other types of mental illness as well. That's why I feel it's important to look at this issue in context. The Mental Health Commission of Canada has launched a campaign around stigma.

Status of Women committee  It's for parents, for schools, for media, and it's for health professionals. They pay particular attention to youth ages 15 to 24.

Status of Women committee  That's great.

Status of Women committee  One of the most important things that the agency undertakes is programs for at-risk children and their parents. One of the things that actually struck me when I was preparing for this committee was in looking at levels of income of people who have reported eating disorders. I was really struck that, of those who presented with eating disorders, at least 61% are reporting income in the lowest percentile.

Status of Women committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members of the committee. Members of the committee, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you today on the subject of eating disorders. My remarks today will focus on the activities of the Public Health Agency of Canada related to this issue.

Health committee  I think some of the answer has come out already in discussions with the Mental Health Commission of Canada. I think being able to recognize the early warning signs is important. Mental illness can sometimes be the result of a person's social situation, his family life, or his having suffered some form of abuse.

Health committee  I'll start. On stigma, I think the efforts of the Mental Health Commission in their anti-stigma campaign, have gone quite a ways to highlight the issue and to not be afraid to talk about it openly. I think you can't find a better way to orchestrate those terms than the Senate report on mental health, “Out of the Shadows at Last”.

Health committee  Thank you so much for the question, and thank you for sharing your story. I think it's important for us, as officials, to never lose sight of those stories. It's what guides our work. Let me start with the second half of your question, which was about specific care for families when it comes to those surviving suicides.

Health committee  Thank you for your question. It is an extremely important concern. Right now, we are continuing to study the risks that exist within vulnerable populations. One of the biggest challenges when it comes to the gay and lesbian communities is the stigma that is often attached. I think we can help vulnerable populations, especially youth.

Health committee  No, not at all. With respect, it's just because the Public Health Agency has been involved in a lot of upstream promotion efforts, so there was a sense of having the Public Health Agency start. That's all.

Health committee  Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Madam Chair and honourable members, for the opportunity to discuss the important topic of suicide prevention. In my remarks today, I will provide a brief overview of suicide prevention and the actions taken by the Public Health Agency of Canada to address suicide and mental health promotion.

Status of Women committee  As with many other issues in the health sector, it's not solely a health issue, as you can appreciate. I would say that with the efforts of the federal government, or at least at the federal level, and in consultation with the provinces and territories, to the extent that we can improve, as I said, the guidance and the recording of statistics, that is when society starts to take note of the depth of the problem.

Status of Women committee  A great question, and thank you so much for it. Right now I should elaborate on that, because you're quite right that it does start with the professionals being able to report not only that incidents of abuse have been reported and either the police have been involved or others.

Status of Women committee  On that specifically, I don't know offhand. We would have to go individually by province and territory to be able to ascertain what kinds of tools within the curriculum are being developed. That really would be within the responsibility of education ministers, so I'm not familiar with that personally.