Health Promotion and Prevention: CAMH Annual Report 2003

CAMH Annual Report

Health Promotion and prevention activities at CAMH include public education, research, clinical health promotion, community-based programming, resource development and public policy development.

School Culture Project

With our School Culture Project, we hope to better understand how the school environment influences substance use, deviant behaviour and mental health outcomes in students. More than 20 schools across the province, in both French- and English-speaking communities, were involved in this project, which was co-led by CAMH's Research Department and Communications, Education and Community Health (CECH) Department. The results of the study, released in 2002, included identifying elements that affect a student's sense of school membership. Now, in collaboration with targeted schools and other external partners, we are developing and evaluating policies and interventions that target those elements. The goal is to improve school climate and culture and reduce substance use and other mental health problems among secondary school students.

Inventory of clinical health promotion activities

CECH developed an inventory of CAMH health promotion activities. The inventory includes more than 90 examples of health promotion, many in the clinical programs, collected through interviews with more than 40 CAMH program staff. During these interviews, staff identified supports needed to enhance health promotion in clinical programs.

In response to one of the key recommendations, CECH is working with the clinical programs to develop and offer program-specific training in health promotion. As well, the department has negotiated an agreement with the

University of Toronto's Centre for Health Promotion that will give CAMH greater access to research expertise in health promotion and will help CAMH with projects related to determinants of health and improving quality of life outcomes.

Madness and Arts Festival

The Madness and Arts Festival was a unique celebration of creativity and mental health, presented by the Workman Theatre Project (WTP) and CAMH. The nine-day event, held in March 2003 at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre, featured art exhibits, theatre, music, dance, lectures, workshops and panel discussions with 185 actors, dancers, musicians, painters and academics from nine countries. Over 10,000 people attended.

The goal of the festival was to educate, entertain and de-stigmatize mental illness. It was a great success. "It was a unique opportunity for people to see wonderfully talented artists and to learn more about an issue that is seldom in the public eye," says Lisa Brown, founder of the WTP and one of the festival's originators.

Smoke-free bylaws passed in 12 more communities

CAMH regional staff continue to work with external partners to develop and promote smoke-free bylaws in their communities. In the past year alone, CECH worked with anti-tobacco coalitions in 16 districts across the province, with 12 bylaws being passed to date. Bylaws that ban smoking in public places and workplaces protect workers and the public from carcinogens and environmental tobacco smoke and help to increase quit rates and reduce the amount that people smoke.

Health promotion and prevention action plan for French-speaking ethno-racial communities

Through funding from Health Canada and Immigration Canada, CAMH undertook a needs assessment in partnership with five French-speaking ethno-racial communities in Toronto. As a result of the needs assessment, we developed a Health Promotion and Prevention Action Plan, aimed at improving mental health and addiction literacy and access to services. One of the most important components of this plan is a public advertising campaign to increase awareness of mental health and substance use in the French-speaking communities.

This project builds on the pioneering work of the Building Bridges Breaking Barriers Access Project and the Ethno-Racial Coalition: Access to Addiction Services, both of which are designed to ensure that ethno-racial communities have access to quality mental health and substance use services from CAMH. Francophones from the Greater Toronto Area raised many concerns about barriers to access and unmet needs that we hope to begin addressing through this project.

The project has been nominated by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation as a finalist for its 2003 Award of Excellence.

New information centre ready to open

In response to the need for more accessible information and services, we are about to open our new McLaughlin Addiction and Mental Health Information Centre. Features include an enhanced toll-free information line, a telephone support line staffed by volunteers, Web-based information, and a storefront location in Toronto. Our new information centre will help us reach people who find it difficult to access mental health and addictions systems and information, particularly people from diverse communities. Designed with broad stakeholder input, the centre will also offer employment opportunities to clients, which is a priority for CAMH.

Public policy

CAMH is committed to playing a leading role in public policy and influencing change. This year, among our many activities, we:

made presentations and submissions to the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, the House of Commons Committee on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs and the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs
worked with regional Mental Health Implementation Task Forces and the Parliamentary Justice Committee on Changes to the Mental Disorder Provisions of the Criminal Code
delivered position papers on housing, harm reduction, lowering the legal blood alcohol content level, retail alcohol monopolies and income support issues for clients
advocated for a national drug strategy, a Toronto drug strategy and legislating municipal tobacco bylaws.

Reducing drinking-related deaths

Drinking and driving is the leading cause of death on Canadian highways. To address this problem,CAMH has called for changes in the Criminal Code to reduce the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) from 80 mg% to 50 mg%.

"The evidence is strong that reducing the BAC limit would lead to fewer collisions, injuries and deaths," says Dr. Robert Mann, Senior Scientist at CAMH, who has been conducting research in this area for almost 20 years.

In taking this position, we are adding our voice to the national campaign led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and supported by many influential health and community groups.

Expanding capacity around the globe

Through our new Office of International Health, which opened in July 2002, we are helping to advance addiction and mental health care around the world and helping to raise CAMH's profile internationally. We have forged partnerships to deliver clinical and health promotion training with:

Mexico's National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon De La Fuente around service needs for underserved populations. We are collaborating with the national institute and the Canadian Institute of Health Research -- Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health to develop an addiction services model for Mexico's indigenous people.
the University of the West Indies' Caribbean Institute on Alcoholism and other Drug Problems (CARIAD) to develop and deliver training on concurrent disorders.
the Nigerian Training Program on Substance Abuse at the University of Benin to develop and share culturally relevant education resources for use in Africa.
the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto in a pilot project training residents in Ethiopia.

At a meeting sponsored by the Pan American Health Organization in Chile, Akwatu Alleyne Khenti, Director of International Health Programs, and Ron Douglas, Project Co-ordinator for the Aboriginal Community Alcohol Harm Reduction Policy, presented CAMH's experience with municipal alcohol policies to a meeting of mayors from across the Americas.