links
Mental health assurance and recovery
-
CHADD Vancouver
For parents of children with ADHD and Adults with ADHD, this organization hosts monthly meetings that provide education and support to families of children/youth with an ADHD diagnosis, adults with ADHD and interested professionals. Provides continuing education on ADD and is a community resource for information about Attention Deficit Disorders. Members come from all over the lower mainland. Meeting location is 210 West Broadway, Vancouver. Information line 604-222-4043.
-
Friends for Life
Created in Australia, this is a school-based anxiety prevention program for children and adolescents which is delivered to schools in co-operation with the BC Ministry of Education. The program may also provide early intervention to children who may be at higher risk for anxiety disorders. For more information you can write to MCF.CYMHFRIENDS@gov.bc.ca.
-
Emerging into light
Emerging into Light Gallery is a place dedicated to celebrating resilience and recovery. The site focuses on community inclusion of people who have mental illness and, as an option to the implied negative message of "anti-stigma," invites celebration by means of stories, drawings, painting and poetry that depict the struggles and successes of people living with a psychiatric diagnosis. The experience of FGTA members is that addiction through self-medicating could be expected appear in these stories.
The Emerging into Light symbol represents the brave lives of people whose struggle is important, far from over and needs to be publicly recognized.
Public policy about drug addiction
-
Addiction a theme in Vancouver's study of homelessness
There's a private story as well as an academic responsibility behind the Simon Fraser University associate professor who is heading up Vancouver's part of a national multi-site homelessness study by the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
-
Bruce Alexander on Prevention
Podcasts of parts of Bruce Alexander's keynote speech at Vancouver's third conference on Creating a Culture of Prevention, November 17, 2009.
-
Canada-wide trial to tackle homelessness
The Mental Health Commission of Canada has launched a five-city research study to test the value of making shelter the first priority in the recovery of a person with a mental or addiction disorder (commonly both). Each of the cities presents a vulnerable person with a different array of services and barriers to those services.
1. Moncton: one of Canada's fastest growing cities, with a shortage of services for Anglophones and Francophones.
2. Montreal: different mental health services provided to homeless people in Quebec.
3. Toronto: ethno-cultural diversity including new immigrants who are non-English speaking.
4. Vancouver: people who struggle with substance abuse and addictions.
5. Winnipeg: urban Aboriginal population. -
Creating a Culture of Caring
The City of Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal health and a broad-based coalition of groups are organizing a March 25 event to bring together Vancouver's prevention community. They aim to start talking about the fostering of a community of caring in Vancouver. Jennifer Gray-Grant met with City of Vancouver Drug Policy Planner Zarina Mulla and Michelle Fortin, the executive director of Watari, a Vancouver-based organization that works with at-risk children and youth and their families, to talk about the planned event.
Listen Now
Running time: 9:42 minutes -
Creating a Culture of Prevention III
A summary and audio excerpts of the City of Vancouver's Creating a Culture of Prevention event held November 17th, 2009 at the Roundhouse.
-
Dr. Gabor Mate on Prevention
Dr. Gabor Maté, who has served as staff physician at the Portland Hotel Society in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, was the closing plenary speaker at the City of Vancouver's Creating a Culture of Prevention event in late March. In this excerpt from his address, Maté talks about Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, referring to how others refer to it as a "sinkhole for money". In fact, he says, the neighbourhood is actually a receptacle for the dysfunctions of our society. What shows up there are the problems that have not been solved elsewhere in our society. To hear Dr. Gabor Maté's full speech, and to read other information about the prevention event and future processes, please visit the Creating a Culture of Prevention page on the drug policy program's website, vancouver.ca/fourpillars.
Listen Now
Running time: 7:16 minutes -
The Family Council
From its Toronto base, "The Family Council strengthens and supports families affected by addiction and mental health issues." The council's website displays the logo of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. On the site are resource guides for Ontario families, a newsletter, and a links page.
-
Four Pillars Coalition
The Four Pillars Drug Strategy is the City of Vancouver's policy and plan for reducing drug-related harm in Vancouver. The website offers many resources such as the podcasts selected for this FGTA page. It also reports harm reduction efforts Canada-wide.
-
Harm Reduction in B.C.
British Columbia's approach to harm reduction is described here, and you can reach the community handbook PDF via HealthLink or by downloading it here.
-
Inner Change Foundation
Inner Change Foundation is dedicated to the social innovation needed for turning back the tide of poverty, homelessness, lawlessness, and premature death that has overwhelmed the Downtown East Side. The canary in this coal mine is the person with a mental disorder who has addictions.
From the website:
"A more integrated, client centered delivery of services and programs in the areas of housing, mental health and addiction is needed. InnerChange Foundation believes that we can no longer separate these into isolated silos. New and more creative approaches must be developed for homeless addicts that will require a better understanding of the issues this population faces."
-
International Drug Policy: Animated Report 2009
This report was produced by an Oscar-winning studio for the
Global Drug Policy Program of the Open Society Institute. By highlighting some of the disastrous effects of drug policy in recent years, it points to the need for reducing the worldwide supply of drugs without needlessly victimizing the world's poor farmers. It also identifies money-wise and compassionate policies for dealing with the "demand" side in ways that make the best use of our societies' judicial and medical resources. -
"Is Addiction a Disease?" BCMA forum
The BC Medical Association writes, "Is there a lingering idea that addiction is not truly a medical disease but rather a human failing? We're having a discussion to see what British Columbians think." The discussion is a forum on the social utility Facebook. You can take part by signing up--that is, creating your own Facebook page--free of charge.
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner in Canada announced in August that Facebook has agreed to change its practices of collecting and storing personal information so that they conform to Canadian privacy law. Eric J. Smith of Fraser Milner Casgrain provides the details. Mr. Smith's article is especially helpful in pointing out the difference between deactivating versus deleting your account in order to remove your personal information from Facebook's database.
