Mental Health Awareness Week is from October 6th to 12th and is an annual national public education campaign designed to help Canadians better understand the realities of mental illness and the difficulties supporting those who need help.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) speaks to “wait times for mental health services that can be up to 2.5 years in some areas of Ontario, and that the disease burden of mental illness and substance abuse is 1.5x higher than all cancers put together in Ontario.”
Federated Health Charities financially supports The Institute for Advancements in Mental Health (IAM), whose mission statement is “to support people with mental illness, innovate solutions to bring back to communities, and drive change for better mental health.”
IAM is a very innovative mental health organization whose roots are in the treatment of schizophrenia and psychosis. However, they have expanded their mandate beyond treatment alone. They describe themselves as “a connector, collaborator, thought leader and solution driven organization, supporting, innovating and driving change for better mental health.”
They continue, adding “IAM innovates in mental health with a focus on returning solutions back to communities, through partnership and collaboration. Through our own in-house services, we design programs around the needs of our clients – people with complex mental health needs and their support circles. In 2017, we created a unique, first-of-its kind community-based mental health innovation platform: a designated space for mental health innovation entrenched within a mental health service organization.
At IAM, they envision a society that helps anyone impacted by mental health issues thrive, a vision of “redesigning society for better mental health.“ They are also working on creating “environments that are more inclusive, positive and accepting for people with mental illness and also looking at “the way public space design in our communities are influencing wellbeing and how, ultimately, healthy public spaces can lead to “healthy cities.”
CAMH also talks about “Ontario youth experiencing increasing levels of metal health issues, an inability to cope and how one in 6 students have reported serious thoughts of suicide in the past year.”
In response, IAM leads the Mental Health Innovation Prize, a partnership between IAM and Mental Health Research Canada to find ways to make youth more resilient and prevent suicide. Since its inception the Innovation Prize has “attracted unique solutions to address the crisis of youth suicide which remains the second leading cause of death for young people in Canada.”
They are also building on their unique knowledge and expertise around psychosis by offering CBT-p informed programming (an approach to psychotherapy) for caregivers, communities and individuals, as well as adaptable community-based training for professionals across a variety of disciplines.
They also offer one-to-one support for the following:
- First episode or new diagnosis of schizophrenia/psychosis
- Persistent, ongoing situations of schizophrenia and related mental illness
- Addictions and substance abuse concerns
- Justice and mental health concerns
- Housing, Employment/ODSP issues
- Early intervention for psychosis
- Support with medication and treatment
- Crisis planning
- Coping and support for individuals and caregivers
- Advocacy
- System navigation/connecting you with resources in your community
