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Community Mental Health in Canada


Community Mental Health in Canada

This week I have been reading a book called Community Mental Health in Canada by Simon Davis. As a former mental health worker I can relate to a lot of the information that he is presenting. Mr. Davis focuses upon those who have serious and persistent mental conditions. These are among the people who are the most disenfranchised in society. Although I have been out of the mental health field for several months now, there are still many things that bother me. In my opinion Canada is not doing enough for those who have serious psychiatric disorders. Simon Davis talks about the policy, theory and practice of community mental health in Canada. In my experience the practice leaves a lot to be desired. Those people with serious and persistent mental disorders face enormous obstacles in our society. They are often in poor physical health, live in substandard housing, are often unemployed and live in poverty. On top of all this they face a tremendous stigma associated their mental illness. The general public is not very knowledgeable about diseases such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In his book Mr. Davis discusses various reasons why the Canadian mental health system is having trouble meeting the needs of mental health consumers. This book talks about recovery, treatment and rehabilitation. There is not a general agreement on what treatment recovery and rehabilitation actually are. Much thought needs to go into what exactly constitutes the best treatment for serious psychiatric disorders. They're all still needs to be clarification on what recovery is and what it means to mental health consumers. What is possible in psychiatric rehabilitation needs to be discovered. My opinion is that the government will need to invest a lot more money in providing adequate treatment and rehabilitation programs for persons with serious mental illness.
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