Health Canada is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for national health policy. The department itself is also responsible for numerous federal health-related agencies, including the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), among others. These organizations help to ensure compliance with federal law in a variety of healthcare, agricultural, and pharmaceutical activities. This responsibility also involves extensive collaboration with various other federal- and provincial-level organizations in order to ensure the safety of food, health, and pharmaceutical products—including the regulation of health research and pharmaceutical manufacturing/testing facilities.
The minister of health is the minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing health-focused government agencies including Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada, as well as enforcing the Canada Health Act, the law governing Canada's universal health care system.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is a United States-based nonprofit organization originally founded as a grassroots group by family members of people diagnosed with mental illness. NAMI identifies its mission as "providing advocacy, education, support and public awareness so that all individuals and families affected by mental illness can build better lives" and its vision as "a world where all people affected by mental illness live healthy, fulfilling lives supported by a community that cares". NAMI offers classes and trainings for people living with mental illnesses, their families, community members, and professionals, including what is termed psychoeducation, or education about mental illness. NAMI holds regular events which combine fundraising for the organization and education, including Mental Illness Awareness Week and NAMIWalks.
The Canadian Medical Association is a national, voluntary association of physicians and medical learners that advocates on national health matters. Its primary mandate is to drive positive change in health care by advocating on key health issues facing doctors and their patients.
Mental health encompasses emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing cognition, perception, and behavior. According to World Health Organization (WHO), it is a "state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and can contribute to his or her community". It likewise determines how an individual handles stress, interpersonal relationships, and decision-making. Mental health includes subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others. From the perspectives of positive psychology or holism, mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and to create a balance between life activities and efforts to achieve psychological resilience. Cultural differences, subjective assessments, and competing professional theories all affect how one defines "mental health". Some early signs related to mental health difficulties are sleep irritation, lack of energy, lack of appetite, and thinking of harming oneself or others.
The Joint Commission is a United States-based nonprofit tax-exempt 501(c) organization that accredits more than 22,000 US health care organizations and programs. The international branch accredits medical services from around the world.
Peer support occurs when people provide knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help to each other. It commonly refers to an initiative consisting of trained supporters, and can take a number of forms such as peer mentoring, reflective listening, or counseling. Peer support is also used to refer to initiatives where colleagues, members of self-help organizations and others meet, in person or online, as equals to give each other connection and support on a reciprocal basis.
In 1928, the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, enacted the Sexual Sterilization Act. The Act, drafted to protect the gene pool, allowed for sterilization of mentally disabled people in order to prevent the transmission of traits to offspring deemed undesirable.
The Drug Addiction Treatment Act of 2000, Title XXXV, Section 3502 of the Children's Health Act, permits physicians who meet certain qualifications to treat opioid addiction with Schedule III, IV, and V narcotic medications that have been specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration for that indication.
Dennis Lester Anderson was a provincial-level politician from Alberta, Canada. At seventeen, Anderson attended Rochdale College in Toronto and started the Rochdale Drug Crisis Centre. He has continued to advocate for mental health ever since. After Rochdale, he spent several years in media, hosting weekly radio shows about current political affairs.
The National Empowerment Center (NEC) is an advocacy and peer-support organization in the United States that promotes an empowerment-based recovery model of mental disorders. It is run by consumers/survivors/ex-patients "in recovery" and is located in Lawrence, Massachusetts in Essex County.
An opioid overdose is toxicity due to excessive consumption of opioids, such as morphine, codeine, heroin, fentanyl, tramadol, and methadone. This preventable pathology can be fatal if it leads to respiratory depression, a lethal condition that can cause hypoxia from slow and shallow breathing. Other symptoms include small pupils, and unconsciousness, however its onset can depend on the method of ingestion, the dosage and individual risk factors. Although there were over 110,000 deaths in 2017 due to opioids, individuals who survived also faced adverse complications, including permanent brain damage.
California Society of Addiction Medicine (CSAM) is the California organization of physicians who specialize in treating addiction. Addiction medicine is the medical specialty that provides care and treatment for people with substance use disorder. It includes both pharmaceutical and behavioral treatments and aligns with other specialties including public health, psychiatry and internal medicine. CSAM was founded in 1973, and has been a State Chapter of the American Society of Addiction Medicine since 1989.
The Men's Project is a counselling agency based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada whose prime mandate is sexual abuse recovery and other issues surrounding the mental health needs of men and their families. The keystone of the agency is its Men & Healing program, a series of group programs designed for men who are recovering from childhood sexual and/or physical abuse. Aside from its Men & Healing program, TMP offers a number of other services, including: anger management; a fathering program; a province-wide crisis line; and individual, family and couples counselling.
United States military veteran suicide is an ongoing phenomenon regarding the high rate of suicide among U.S. military veterans in comparison to the general civilian public. A focus on preventing veteran suicide began in 1958 with the opening of the first suicide prevention center in the United States. During the mid-1990s, a paradigm shift in addressing veteran suicide occurred with the development of a national strategy which included several Congressional Resolutions. More advancements were made in 2007, when the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Act created a comprehensive program including outreach at each Veterans Affairs Office (VA) and the implementation of a 24-hour crisis hotline. PTSD, depression, and combat-related guilt in veterans are often related to suicide as it can be difficult for veterans to transition to civilian life.
The American Academy for Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) is a professional organization and an accredited Continuing Medical Education (CME) provider, based in East Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Its members are specialists in addiction psychiatry and other health care professionals who treat patients with addictions. AAAP provides medical education programs in the field of addiction psychiatry.
Howard Center is a Burlington, Vermont-based nonprofit organization that offers professional crisis and counseling services to children and adults; supportive services to individuals with autism and developmental disabilities who need help with education, employment, and life maintenance skills; counseling and medical services for those struggling with substance use disorders; and interventions and supports for adults with serious and persistent mental health challenges in Chittenden County, Vermont's most populous county. Howard Center collaborates with many community partners and is a United Way of Northwest Vermont-funded agency.
Colleen L. Barry is a researcher and educator in the areas of mental health and addiction policy and policy communication. She is the inaugural dean of the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University.
The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health is a grantmaking organization with the mission to improve the mental health of Texans. As a unit of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin, the Foundation seeks to bolster conditions that support mental health and eliminate conditions that harm mental health, especially for communities that have been historically underserved or marginalized.
