Category: Advocacy, Policy, Public Health

The mental health, substance use and HIV/HCV Community of Practice provides a forum for learning and discussion for people interested in mental health and substance use. We meet on a monthly basis and also have an online forum for ongoing dialogue. Please join us for our next CoP session on April 30th @ 1-2 pm…. Read more »

Hi everyone! Our next MHSU CoP meeting is on January 31, 2014 @ 10-11 am. Shelley Hourston from BC Persons with Disabilities will be hosting our meeting. Thanks Shelley!   To register for the meeting, please click on the link below: https://stacyl.clickmeeting.com/January_31_CoP_Meeting/register   You will receive an email titled, “Confirmation of registration,” from [email protected], with the… Read more »

An interesting TED Talk – Thanks Janice Duddy!   Watch this interesting 12 minute video here     Description: Nearly 450 million people are affected by mental illness worldwide. In wealthy nations, just half receive appropriate care, but in developing countries, close to 90 percent go untreated because psychiatrists are in such short supply. Vikram Patel… Read more »

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 »