Many Canadians hold negative attitudes towards people with mental health issues, says a new poll released Monday by the Canadian Medical Association.

The CMA says those attitudes have not changed in decades. The federal government has announced $75 million in funding to de-stigmatize mental health in Canada, but results could take years.

The poll, which was part of the CMA's 2008 National Report Card, showed 46 per cent of Canadians think people use the term "mental illness" as an excuse for bad behaviour.

One of four Canadians in the survey said they were scared to be around someone with a mental illness - something that doesn't surprise Tammy Lambert.

She has suffered from schizoaffective disorder for more than a decade. She writes poems about her delusions and says she often feels alone at school, fighting the fears of other people.

"I don't think that they mean to treat you differently, it's just something that happens," Lambert said. "It's like mental illness red flags people."

The poll also showed only 50 per cent of Canadians would tell a friend that a family member had a mental illness -- compared to 72 per cent who would talk about a cancer diagnosis.

"We need to do a major education effort aimed at the public because the stigma with mental illness is clearly, clearly out there," Dr. Brian Day, CMA's president, told CTV News.

In an earlier press release, he said that "in some ways, mental illness is the final frontier of socially-acceptable discrimination."

The poll also found that:

• a solid majority of Canadians would not have a family doctor (61 per cent) or hire a lawyer (58 per cent) who has a mental illness;
• 55 per cent would not marry someone who has a mental illness;
• 27 per cent of respondents are fearful of being around people experiencing serious mental illness;
• 15 per cent of respondents had themselves received a previous diagnosis of clinical depression, the most common mental illness.

Meanwhile, less than half of Canadians think people struggling with drug and alcohol addictions have a mental illness, says the report.

The results also showed that only one in five Canadians would socialize with someone who has a drug or alcohol addiction.

"These figures show clearly the insidious stigma still associated with mental health and mental illness," said Day. "These are the attitudes that have kept mental health on the outside for far too long."

Despite the stigmas, 72 per cent of respondents agreed that funding to treat mental illness should be equal to money spent on physical illnesses such as cancer.

With a report by CTV's Graham Richardson