All articles

Racialized and Indigenous communities are often faced with systemic barriers that impact every social determinant of health. They must face these barriers to gain access to the labour market, health care and educational opportunities. Furthermore, they are often unable to find services offered in their first language, are over-represented in our justice system, and also face discrimination in interactions with police services and the courts. The result is a negative impact on mental health…

This past year, the CAMH Health Promotion Resource Centre (CAMH HPRC) launched a new report that outlines the substantial amount of mental health promotion (MHP) work being done across the province of Ontario. CAMH HPRC is part of the Evidence Exchange Network (EENet) in the Provincial System Support Program (PSSP) at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). EENet is a provincial knowledge exchange network that brings together mental health and addiction stakeholders from across Ontario.

I’ve written blog entries here before about the Antidepressant Skills Workbook, a free evidence-based self-care tool developed over a decade ago, which can be downloaded in English, French, Punjabi, Chinese, Farsi and Vietnamese; and also as an audio book (sadly, only in English so far). Also available for free download on that site are versions of the workbook focused on mood self-control for the workplace

Developed by a multidisciplinary team under the supervision of Professor Brian Mishara from the Université du Québec à Montréal and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada, the mental health promotion program Passeport: S’équiper pour la vie (Passport: Skills for life) promotes children’s emotional well-being. More specifically, it encourages children to identify and assess coping strategies themselves in order to deal with new situations and everyday challenges. Studies show that early development of coping skills helps the child overcome challenges encountered during adolescence and adulthood

If tackling a complex issue is like building a puzzle, the most important step is to find all the pieces. How to start? Listen to people with experience. In my last blog, I began to share findings from the work of the Community of Interest (COI) for Racialized Populations and Mental Health and Addiction.

Tackling a complex issue can be like building a puzzle. Sometimes the first step is to find the pieces.

In my last blog, I introduced you to the Community of Interest (COI) for Racialized Populations and Mental Health and Addiction. Last year, the COI’s goal was to better understand how and why racialized communities in Ontario use the emergency department (ED) for mental health and addictions services. We also wanted to showcase promising and innovative practices that benefited racialized communities, service providers and the health system. To learn more about the COI and this work, please read my previous blog here: One Room, Many Voices, One Conversation.

In Quebec, there are many ad campaigns designed to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness. Of particular note are ads by the Mental Illness Foundation. The campaign Demander de l’aide, c’est fort! by the Centre de prévention du suicide du Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean also seeks to shatter the image that asking for help is a sign of weakness, redefining it instead as a sign of strength. This type of innovation is reflected in the Et moi, comment ça va?[1] project recently established by the Centre de prévention du suicide de Québec (CPSQ).

Communities support our growth, action and change, both personally and professionally. In the mental health system, communities of dedicated, passionate and motivated collaborators often act as catalysts for knowledge exchange and action.

Our community came together around a shared understanding that mental health experiences are informed by experiences of race and racism, and that mental health policy, planning and service delivery must consider the needs and realities of racialized groups.

Over the past year, the FEJ and mental health teams of the CSSS Dorval-Lachine-Lasalle wrote a document entitled, “Connecting the FEJ-DI-TED-DP, Psycho-social and Mental Health Services”. This document was a response to concerns the SIPPE program felt regarding its collaboration with the mental health team. It presents a framework for practice aiming to increase teamwork and collaboration between various services. Since implementing this framework last fall, we have noticed improvements in communication between health care providers on the FEJ and mental health teams. Because we are dealing with two programs with two distinct mandates, collaboration remains complex and great challenges lie ahead.

I like to say that psychotherapy is the treatment that has been researched the most. There is plenty of scientific data available, and when so much data is available, researchers can begin to summarize that data in what we call a systematic review. In fact, there is so much data that we can not only conduct systematic reviews, we can also conduct reviews of reviews. My goal here is not to describe any of these reviews in detail; instead, I hope to draw on what is consistent from one review to the next and to translate that into terms we can more easily relate to.