Consumer Involvement
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is a strong supporter of the need for a strong consumer voice in all aspects of mental illness/mental health policy, planning, and delivery – from participation to decision-making to choice.
The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) was created by the federal government in its budget of March 2007. The goal of the MHCC is to help bring into being an integrated mental health system that places people living with mental illness at its centre. To this end, the Commission encourages cooperation and collaboration among governments, mental health service providers, employers, the scientific and research communities, as well as Canadians living with mental illness, their families and caregivers. In this, the MHCC’s inaugural Annual Report, we are eager to share with Canadians the progress that has been made towards accomplishing our mandate.
In Toronto on January 29th – 31st, 2006, the CMHA National, the Canadian Association for Community Care and the Canadian Home Care Association, held a Policy Forum on Home Care and Mental Health. This Forum brought together key stakeholders from governments, service providers, consumers of mental health services, families, health professionals and community-based organizations for discussions that will advance the policy agenda for mental health home care.
Early in 2003, the Government of Canada’s Policy Research Initiative launched an interdepartmental project to investigate the relevance and usefulness of social capital as a public policy tool. This report presents a synthesis of the main conclusions and key insights learned during the course of this project. It also proposes some possible approaches for the use and integration of social capital in the Canadian policy (and research) agenda.
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), National Office hosted a web discussion throughout March and April 2005 to promote a dialogue on mental health and home care: key issues and policy implications. The web discussion touched on many of the important elements to be considered in developing mental health and home care policies.
The Canadian Mental Health Association recommends five broad areas on which the Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology should move forward: developing and implementing a pan-Canadian national strategy on mental Illness/mental health; responding to the Premiers’ Council’s commitment to community mental health; ensuring that children and youth, aboriginals, women, and new immigrants are included in the national strategy; ensuring that suicide is addressed as part of the national strategy; and committing to increasing the capacity of the voluntary sector in the mental health community to participate in public policy development.
A reaction by the Canadian Policy Research Network to the Ontario government’s attempts to involve citizens in setting budget priorities is instructive.
A workshop presentation by the Canadian Policy Research Network (CPRN) exploring how and when to use public dialogue methodology, drawing on CPRN’s experience with dialogues on health reform, the social contract, quality of life and other issues.
This backgrounder on caregiver support was created for the CMHA’s Citizens for Mental Health forum series to provide an overview of the issue and highlight government and community-based responses.
In June 2002, CMHA National, building on work by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH), embarked upon an ambitious 22-month project, Citizens for Mental Health. On September 19-20, 2003, 28 project participants from across Canada met in Toronto to further refine the recommended actions related to the common issues identified through the regional forums and, through this process, contribute to the development of a national mental health policy framework. This report documents that two-day session.
