Mental Health Problems and Disorders

• Abuse of Alcohol and Drugs
• Physical/mental health interactions
• Schizophrenia
• Suicide
• Violence and Abuse

Alcohol and Drug Abuse

Canada's Drug Strategy

Physical/Mental Health Interactions  

"This Battle Which I Must Fight: Cancer in Canada's Children and Teenagers"

Features information on psychosocial impact of cancer on families.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia: A Handbook For Families (1991), Published by Health Canada in cooperation with the Schizophrenia Society of Canada.

Contributors to this handbook urged that its contents should help families who are new to the illness to deal with some of the fear, sorrow and bewilderment that the contributors themselves had endured when little information about schizophrenia was available. The handbook has been primarily developed, therefore, as a guide for families when early signs indicate that a relative may have schizophrenia, and as a resource for these families when a diagnosis of schizophrenia has been determined.

Best Practices in Mental Health Reform: Discussion Paper   (1997), prepared by the Health Systems Research Unit, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry

The Best Practices in Mental Health Reform Project was developed and funded by the Federal/Provincial/Territorial Advisory Network on Mental Health (ANMH), an intergovernmental forum for national collaboration on identification, critical analysis and researching of mental health issues. This discussion paper summarizes the first two phases of the project (a critical review of the evidence base for "best practices" relevant to mental health reform, with a focus on chronic and severe mental illness, and a situational analysis of mental health reform policies, practices and initiatives in Canada which approximate "best practices"). It then addresses the implementation of best practices across entire systems of care, and offers several recommendations for action.

Quality of Life Measurement Among Persons with Chronic Mental Illness: A Critique of Measures and Methods (1996), prepared by Mark Atkinson, PhD and Sharon Ziblin, M.Sc.

This document is intended to cover the basic issues, methods and instruments, and to foster an understanding of what is needed to employ Quality of Life (QoL) measurement in a meaningful way in clinical practice, evaluation activities or research projects. Issues and methods addressed include definitions of QoL, instrument reliability and validity, the validity of measurement methods, evaluation design, and the role of QoL measurement in mental health planning and policy formulation.

Evaluation of Programs for the Treatment of Schizophrenia: A Health Economic Perspective (1994), prepared by Ron Goeree

This document presents a health economic perspective on the evaluation of treatment programs for schizophrenia, with a focus on quantitative research. The report touches on the different types of economic evaluations, describing and assessing in detail an evaluation model that focuses on outcome measures. The use of basic economic evaluation terms and concepts is also discussed.

Evaluation of Programs for the Treatment of Schizophrenia:  Part II A Review of Selected Programs in Canada (1996), prepared by Ron Goeree

This document presents a review and case study of several model programs and their evaluation activities, including the instruments used.  Part II is useful in presenting concrete examples to illustrate the principles espoused in the earlier publication.  These examples provide a basis for suggestions on how to bridge the gap between what is currently being done and what might ideally be done with respect to the evaluation of schizophrenia programs.

Suicide

Suicide in Canada: Update of the Report of the Task Force on Suicide in Canada (1994)

This update of the 1987 report was produced by Health Canada in collaboration with a working group of experts from several disciplines and regions. The report reviews current knowledge about the epidemiology of suicide, provides mortality data from 1950 to 1992, and discusses issues in prevention, intervention, postvention and data collection.

Violence and Abuse  

Mental Illness and Violence: Proof or Stereotype? Mental Illness and Violence: Proof or Stereotype? (1996)

Mental health advocates have traditionally stated that persons with mental illness are no more likely to commit violent acts than are persons who are not mentally ill. However, there has been growing uncertainty as to the exact nature of the relationship [between mental illness and violence], among caregivers, health care providers, and advocacy groups, spawned, on one hand, by sensational media accounts and television dramas, and on the other, by conflicting scientific reports. To help shed light on this issue, this critical review of the literature was undertaken.

National Clearinghouse on Family Violence (NCFV)

The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence of the Public Health Agency of Canada is a national resource centre for all Canadians seeking information and solutions to violence within the family. Professionals, other front-line workers, researchers and community groups need to know what their colleagues and counterparts are doing across the country. By sharing the latest research and information on all aspects of prevention, protection and treatment, the Clearinghouse is helping Canadian communities reach for solutions.

The Invisible Boy: Revisioning the Victimization of Male Children and Teens (1996)

Despite the fact that over 300 books and articles on male victims have been published in the last 25 to 30 years, boys and teen males remain on the periphery of the discourse on child abuse. Few workshops about males can be found at most child abuse conferences and there are no specialized training programs for clinicians. ... The Invisible Boy is intended for a wide readership. ...[It] it is perhaps most important to see the document, not as a definitive statement of the male experience (we are too early in the struggle for that), but rather as a "snapshot in time" of some of the controversies, challenges, knowledge gaps and unexplored issues pertaining to the male experience of victimization.