Category: Advocacy, Policy, Public Health

Thanks to Kristen Kvakic for hosting this month’s Community of Practice Kristen Kvakic, from AIDS Vancouver Island, hosted our last Mental Health and Substance Use Community of Practice held on November 29th. Thanks for facilitating the great discussion! And thank you for sharing about the Community Resiliency Model. This model is a hands-on workbook for… Read more »

From the Guardian, Thursday November 21, 2013 by Mark Rice-Oxley and Carmen Fishwick (click to view full article) Doctors across Europe are warning that the soaring use of antidepressants is down to growing pressure to “medicalise” unhappiness, complaining that a lack of time and meagre availability of other therapies meant that physicians reach for the prescription pad… Read more »

  The Pacific AIDS Network invites member agency frontline workers to participate in a Mental Health & Substance Use & HIV & HCV Community of Practice.  Our goal is to support frontline workers in mental health and substance use related issues and practice.    When: November 29th @ 10- 11 am Host: Kristen Kvakic  Register: click here for online registration or… Read more »

The Mental Health, Substance Use and HIV/HCV Community of Practice is launching video conferencing for our monthly meetings!   Join us for our first Video Conference on September 26 @ 2 pm-3 pm!   To register please click the link below: https://stacyl.clickmeeting.com/MH_SU_CoP_Mtg_Sept/register Participants will need access to a headphone set that includes a microphone and a… Read more »

Much has been written on the interrelatedness of mental health and homelessness, some arguing that mental health problems lead to homelessness, while others claiming that homelessness is a stress factor which provokes mental ill health. Although the direction of causality is not straightforward, the link clearly shows how mental health cannot be treated in isolation… Read more »

  This blog by author Bonnie Ware originally appeared in the Huffington Post. Here she describes her work as a palliative care nurse in Australia, and what she learned along the way. Thank you Bonnie for your insightful work. ______   For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had… Read more »

Hearing voices is a pretty common human experience and research estimates that around 10% of the population hears voices – and these voices can be both compelling and problematic. In fact, hearing voices is one of the main criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia, among other mental illnesses.   Because of the  association between hearing… Read more »

First workplace webinar a huge success: Don’t miss the next one on August 28 Last week, half a million Canadians missed work because of a mental health problem or illness. Just as many Canadians will miss work next week. Did you know that mental health is the number one cause of disability claims in Canada? The personal toll on employees, and… Read more »

Women who suffered severe sexual trauma as kids benefit most from intervention. A UCLA-led study of HIV-positive women who were sexually abused as children has found that the more severe their past trauma, the greater their improvement in an intervention program designed to ease their psychological suffering. View article on Health Canal here The study, conducted by researchers at UCLA’s… Read more »

Integrating mental health and substance use in HIV is an essential component of  care and support. In BC, the Pacific AIDS Network is leading this initiative – and it is one of the most concerted efforts in Canada to do so.  We are also committed to including HCV in our approach, even though there is… Read more »

The Pacific AIDS Network invites member agency frontline workers to participate in a Mental Health & Substance Use & HIV & HCV Community of Practice.  Our goal is to support and foster individual, community and regional expertise in community-focused mental health.  When: June 27th @ 2:30 3:30 pm Email: [email protected] for the dial in info   Sharing, Collaborating, Learning… Read more »

The first article in a landmark series to help health care workers and providers, donors, and decision makers understand the importance of including mental health care in global health programs is being published in this week’s PLOS Medicine. Giving a global perspective on integrating mental health into health services around the world, the series focuses… Read more »