Poor mental health, harmful alcohol use persists post-pandemic: report

A new report shows that even though the COVID-19 pandemic ended several years ago, the increase in issues around mental health and substance use still continue.

The COVID-19 pandemic may be over, but mental health and addiction professionals say life hasn’t returned to normal for all Ontarians.

Hayley Hamilton, senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), said in an interview that issues faced during the pandemic such as higher alcohol use and lower reported mental health lingered even in 2025.

“As (we) progressed through the pandemic, at least I hoped, you began to hope that we would see a turnaround,” she said. “That as we moved out of the pandemic then we would start to see some, you know, return to close to estimates that we had prior to the pandemic. Quite often we just saw the estimates remaining as they were early in the pandemic.

The rise in substance use and impact to mental health were detailed in the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s 2025 Monitor report, which surveyed 3,012 Ontarians aged 18 and older between February and March of last year.

The number of adults reporting fair or poor mental health rose from 26.2 per cent in 2020 to 29 per cent last year. Those who reported frequent mental distress, defined as 14 days or more in a month, increased from 16.8 per cent to 18.7 per cent.

“Society has changed,” Hamilton said. “It’s important for us to recognize that our interactions, our work or the economy, cost of living and our sense of control over our future and what is to come, I think, is also an issue.”

The use of treatments to tackle anxiety and depression has also increased since the pandemic, the report found, with 26.5 per cent of women using anti-anxiety medication in 2025 compared to 22.3 per cent five years prior.

Dominique Morisano, a clinical psychologist and University of Toronto adjunct professor, said people are still struggling.