Evaluation of PHAC's Mental Health Activities

Prepared by the Office of Audit and Evaluation
Health Canada and Public Health Agency of Canada

July 2025
Note: The complete evaluation report is available upon request. Please send an email to oae-bae@phac-aspc.gc.ca.

On this page

• Executive summary
  • Background and evaluation scope
  • Findings
  • Recommendations
• Management Response and Action Plan
  • Recommendation 1
  • Recommendation 2

Executive summary

Background and evaluation scope

During the period covered by this evaluation, Canada’s mental health landscape has been shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which intensified psychological distress, especially among youth, Indigenous communities, and equity-deserving groups, while straining public health resources. In response, the federal government committed $100 million through Budget 2021 to support mental health promotion and prevention.

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) promotes the mental health of Canadians  through a variety of activities including the following:

• providing funding to organizations who, in turn, work within communities to promote mental health and prevent suicide;
• conducting surveillance activities;
• acting as a convenor and catalyst;
• leveraging the knowledge gained from the funded programs, surveillance, academia and other sources of knowledge; and
• sharing this information through a variety of forums. 

This evaluation examines the alignment, impact, and efficiency of PHAC’s mental health activities between April 2019 and December 2024 inclusively.

Findings

Alignment

The Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) mental health activities were aligned with the Agency’s role as a convener, funder, and knowledge mobilizer for health promotion and suicide prevention activities. PHAC’s funding for the 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline was considered appropriate since it fits its role as a convener, as service delivery occurs through a network of local, regional and national crisis lines. Activities are also aligned with legislative commitments from the federal government and respond to emerging commitments.

While anyone can experience poor mental health and mental illness, some populations are disproportionately affected. As a result, PHAC has tailored programming to respond to the needs of specific population groups facing higher rates of poor mental health, systemic barriers to positive mental health, and other known social determinants of health.

Promotion of mental health resources, including 9-8-8, was also targeted to higher-risk individuals and populations, and informed by surveillance of positive mental health and mental illness.

Impacts

PHAC’s mental health activities have made documented impacts on the availability of mental health data and have improved awareness of the mental health resources available on the Canada.ca web site, including 9-8-8. PHAC’s investments in mental health promotion through community organizations resulted in the development of, and improved access to new mental health resources. Based on available performance data and reporting, many participants in funded mental health promotion programs report having used these resources. Nearly all projects also reported improved health and protective factors among participants. Furthermore, through the Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHP-IF), phased funding has encouraged scaling of successful initiatives. There were limitations in available quantitative data across some grant and contribution (G&Cs) programs, as recipients were not required or not able to report on key indicators.

Efficiency

PHAC’s activities for mental health address relevant issues like promoting mental health in priority populations and responding to emerging issues like COVID-19. However, PHAC faced challenges supporting a cohesive and consistent set of activities and objectives while responding to unplanned direction and demands, in part due to unpredictable challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic recovery. Most internal interviewees perceived a lack of shared strategic direction for mental health activities across the Agency.

At the same time, PHAC made efforts to promote greater internal collaboration and enhanced information sharing across various work units involved in mental health activities. Additionally, the Knowledge Development and Exchange (KDE) hub and the Promoting Health Equity: Mental Health of Black Canadians Fund (MHBC) Knowledge Mobilization Hub “Amandla Olwazi”, which is funded by PHAC, has facilitated knowledge exchange among funding recipients. Furthermore, by using existing relationships with third-party organizations and distributing funds through established programs, PHAC was able to quickly allocate significant funding to community organizations to support mental health during COVID-19. PHAC also made gained efficiency by leveraging the networks, partnerships, and funding sources of recipient organizations to implement distress centre programming.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: Consider developing a coherent strategic direction across all PHAC activities supporting mental health.

While PHAC’s activities for mental health are generally aligned with emerging issues, they were often driven by external demands, particularly as the Agency addressed unprecedented challenges during the pandemic period. There was a perceived lack of a coherent strategy tying these activities together. This created challenges and contributed to a siloed or fragmented approach to addressing mental health across the Agency. Developing a coherent strategic direction that describes all PHAC mental health activities, including funding programs, surveillance, and communication would help clarify shared goals and priorities within the Agency and for external stakeholders.

Recommendation 2: Examine opportunities to improve the consistent collection and reporting of performance data across funding recipients for PHAC’s mental health programs.

In some program areas, particularly those with shorter-term funding and lower-value grant funding, there was a lack of performance information from funding recipients on key shared performance indicators. This limits the ability of management to understand and communicate the shared impact of funded programs on overarching mental health priorities. Related to the first recommendation, it would be beneficial to examine opportunities to improve the consistency of performance data collection for funding recipients, such as establishing common indicators across PHAC-funded projects, where possible.

Management Response and Action Plan

Recommendation 1

Consider developing a coherent strategic direction across all PHAC activities supporting mental health.

Management response

Management agrees with the recommendation.

While PHAC’s mental health activities have demonstrated alignment with emerging issues and other mental health commitments across the federal government, communicating a clear and coherent narrative for PHAC’s role in mental health will help clarify shared goals and priorities for both internal and external stakeholders for greater transparency.

The Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing (CMHW) will develop a placemat outlining PHAC’s population mental health strategic directions, priorities, roles and responsibilities. This placemat will be used to communicate more clearly PHAC’s role and priorities for mental health. 

The placemat will be informed by ongoing activities such as CMHW’s development of an internal paper entitled Mental Health Promotion - The Foundation of a Population Mental Health Approach, and the Centre for Surveillance and Applied Research’s integrated mental health surveillance approach. 

Action Plan	Deliverables	Expected Completion Date	Accountability	Resources
1.1 Development of a Placemat on PHAC’s Population Mental Health Strategic Directions and Roles and Responsibilities.	Placemat with annex in the back highlighting the PHAC’s Roles and Responsibilities	June 30, 2026	Director General, Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing Vice President, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Branch	To be completed within existing human and financial resources in CMHW.

Recommendation 2

Examine opportunities to improve the consistent collection and reporting of performance data across funding recipients for PHAC’s mental health programs.

Management response

Management agrees with the recommendation, while recognizing certain limitations.

The collection and reporting of performance data across funding recipients for PHAC’s mental health programs enables management to understand and communicate the shared impact of funded programs on overarching mental health priorities.

PHAC’s mental health programs are diverse and include, for example:

• short term (<2 years) funding programs that are rapidly implemented, amidst resource and capacity constraints, in response to public health emergencies. Projects under such programs may be funded through grants which are unconditional. Projects funded through grants must meet certain eligibility requirements and do not need to meet any further conditions after they receive payment. Projects funded through contributions may be challenged to report on some outcomes indicators in this timeframe and may differ significantly in the data they do provide, given differences in scope of work among funded projects;
• funding programs focused on specific communities and/or populations, which may require specialized and culturally-safe indicators or reporting mechanisms; and
• long term (up to 10 years) funding programs focused on the development, adaptation, implementation, and evaluation of promising and innovative mental health promotion interventions. Projects funded under such programs are not expected to report on all outcomes indicators each year; longer term outcomes are expected at the end of the funding cycle.

This diversity adds complexity to the consistent collection and reporting of performance data across PHAC’s mental health programs and shapes and informs the ways to respond to this recommendation.

Action Plan	Deliverables	Expected Completion Date	Accountability	Resources
2.1.1 Enhance sharing of Performance Measurement and Evaluation (PME) tools and resources across HPCDP programs, and new programs, focused on mental health and wellbeing including, but not limited to, Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund (MHPIF), Preventing Family Violence, Youth Substance Use Prevention, and Suicide Prevention.	2.1.1 HPCDP Community of Practice on PME established by the Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing (CMHW) to facilitate sharing of performance measurement best practices, tools, and resources among HPCDP programs and program officials focused on mental health and wellbeing. Associated deliverables include:	N/A	Director General, Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing,   Vice President, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Branch	Existing resources in CMHW
	Terms of Reference formalizing the CoP’s purpose, composition, and meeting frequency.	August 29, 2025
	Initiation of Bi-Monthly CoP meetings, chaired and facilitated by CMHW	September 30, 2025
2.1.2 Assess opportunities and feasibility of enhancing access to PME specialists across the Branch to support new and/or existing programs, and their funding recipients, in the collection and reporting of performance data. Note, this assessment will take place as part of the Branch HR and Financial stabilization exercise that is currently underway.	2.1.2 Report on options for enhancing consistency and access to PME specialist support for programs	March 31, 2026	Director General, Office of Strategic Directions, Vice President, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Branch
2.2 Establish common logic model for use across all of PHAC’s Mental Health Promotion Programs to facilitate the consistent collection and reporting of performance data across programs and their funding recipients.	2.2.1 Mental Health Promotion Program – Common Logic Model	June 30, 2026	Director General, Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Vice President, Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Branch	Existing resources in CMHW