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Over 30% of North Shore residents say they've struggled with mental health during pandemic

A similar number say their mental health hasn't been impacted
Jane Seyd
Jane Seyd
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Over 30 per cent of North Shore residents reported that the pandemic has worsened their mental health.FatCamera / E+ / Getty Images

Mental health challenges  have been among those taking the spotlight during the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A recent study from Angus Reid Institute reported that 36 per cent of surveyed Canadians are struggling with their mental health. Another seven per cent of Canadians said they are “barely getting by” when dealing with their mental health. This number has doubled since October 2020.

So far, the majority of North Shore residents are hanging in there, according to a recent North Shore News poll, with the largest number of those responding (almost 38 per cent) reporting that they have been challenged but are doing OK. Almost a third (31 per cent) said their mental health hasn't been impacted at all by the pandemic.

On the flip side, almost a quarter of those responding to the poll said the pandemic has left them struggling and feeling more depressed than usual. Almost seven per cent of locals responding said the pandemic has made pre-existing mental health challenges much worse.

North Shore News polled 1,977 North Shore News readers and asked the question: How has your mental health been during the COVID pandemic?

The poll ran from Jan. 27 to Feb. 23. Of the 1,977 votes, we can determine that 689 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:

I'm doing OK. It's been challenging at times but I've managed to use zoom and small gatherings and the great outdoors to stay safe and stay sane. 37.74% local, 32.37% total    
I'm struggling. I'm usually pretty resilient but the past two years have been wearing and I'm feeling more depressed than usual. 24.38% local, 26.91% total    
I'm not doing well. I had mental health challenges like depression and anxiety before the pandemic and the past two years have made it much worse. 6.82% local, 9.76% total    
The pandemic hasn't impacted my mental health much. Life is what you make it. 31.06% local, 30.96% total    
  Local   Total

Results are based on an online study of adult North Shore News readers that are located in North Shore. The margin of error – which measures sample variability – is +/- 2.19%, 19 times out of 20.

North Shore News uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.