Sharing knowledge through training: CAMH Annual Report 2004

CAMH Annual Report

Tony Jno Baptiste and Janet Mawhinney leading a diversity training session

If you're an able-bodied, middle-aged white female service provider working in northern Ontario, your clients, especially among First Nations people, may not see you the same way you see yourself.

This was never more evident than during a recent diversity training session co-ordinated by CAMH's Education and Health Promotion Department. Facilitator Janine Robinson challenged other service providers from northern Ontario to look at themselves, no matter what their ethno-cultural identity, and examine how their access to privilege could affect their relationship with clients.

The experience for the participants was eye opening, to say the least. Says Robinson, "Some service providers became visibly upset and later confided that it was a disturbing day for them. I heard comments like: 'I never understood how blind I was to my own privilege. It threw me for a loop.' Throughout the day, I saw a lot of people dramatically shift their attitudes during the training as they considered marginalization as well as privilege."

In the north, where First Nations people make up approximately 30 per cent of the population, there's an even greater need for cross-cultural training between community service providers and traditional healers, to minimize cultural misunderstandings that can often lead to a misdiagnosis.

The Cross Training Pilot Project was developed in response to a need identified through a diversity needs assessment survey, conducted by CAMH with community members, service providers and allied professionals in a number of communities throughout Ontario in 2003. The results showed that training is one of the keys to bringing diversity beyond the walls of CAMH and to building partnerships in communities on the communities' terms. This project provides training around addiction, mental health, diversity awareness and organizational change.

"This training program allows us to provide a valuable service to the service providers across the province, as well as an opportunity for them to meet others within their own community who are undertaking the same work and facing similar issues. It also provides us with the opportunity to let them know what CAMH and other service providers have to offer, and how we can all work together to better serve diverse communities," says Drupati Maharaj, Diversity Knowledge Exchange Manager.

CAMH trainers held 16 consultations with key stakeholders and will continue to hold training sessions on subjects as varied as introductory addiction and mental health training for immigrant and refugee serving agencies to cultural awareness training for ethnic communities. With the proper training, caregivers serving clients from diverse populations will greatly improve their care and can take advantage of existing resources.

• Print