Tip of the hat to 3 people from 3 parties

        Although it never received the hype of poverty reduction or other high profile parliamentary committees - the Select Committee on Mental Heath has probably been the most functional one of all during this government, no doubt in part due to members of all 3 elected parties working together. 

        With reasoned debate, a respected consultation process and evidence-guided recommendations - they seemed, at least from an outsider's perspective, to have worked as a committee should.  While the debate will carry on as to how exactly the initiative will roll out and what the specific priorities will be - yesterday's announcement of a new 3 year $257 million strategy to support children's mental health (story at  http://ow.ly/5oNSF ) is an important product of their work, will help thousands of children youth and families, and is a committment that has a decent chance of surviving an election due to the multi-partisan approach in which it was developed.

        Big congrats are in order to Liberal MPP Kevin Flynn, PC MPP Christine Elliot, NDP MPP France Gélinas, and all others who worked hard on this one!

Need Action, Not Another Report

Letter to the Editor in the 20 Nov 2008 issue of METRO (Toronto), in response to the launch of the 'Roots of Youth Violence' report. -Bryan


Re: Probe links youth violence to mental health neglect, Nov. 14

NEED ACTION, NOT ANOTHER REPORT

Dear Editor(s)

The links between mental health and violence have long been raised by clinical and social scientists, youth agencies, and community advocates. In raising the profile of the cause, we hope the recommendations of McMurtry & Curling to address the ‘Roots of Youth Violence’ are adopted so that real action is finally seen in communities at risk.

In a new approach, any provincial reorganization should consider a revised definition of ‘youth’ so that young people transitioning from the childhood to adult mental health system no longer lose proven crime and homeless-prevention services simply because they have turned 18 and no longer qualify.

The Roots of Youth Violence is an excellent study with serious recommendations. The time is now for those involved to demand real action from the Premier, and not allow this to be another report that ends up sitting in a library without affecting meaningful change.

Bryan Heal, Public Health Consultant

Honouring the Past, Shaping the future

This past week I was delighted to attend the 25th anniversary celebration of Ontario’s Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office (PPAO). Downtown Toronto’s Delta Chelsea played host to the gathering of consumer survivors, policymakers, human rights leaders, mental health advocates, and friends old and new to honour the service of an agency who has been at the forefront of patients’ rights for the past quarter century.

In addition to the history of progress and vision statements presented, one of the big highlights of the event was the launch of what will likely be remembered as a groundbreaking report titled “Honouring the Past, Shaping the Future: 25 years of progress in mental health advocacy and rights protection”.

It’ll take me a little while to get through it all, but this collection of over 100 insightful articles from consumers, advocates, political figures, physicians and lawyers already appears to be an important read for anybody with an interest in understanding recovery from mental illness and in shaping the systemic changes of tomorrow.

The report can be downloaded from the PPAO’s website, at: http://www.ppao.gov.on.ca/