Check out The Agenda last night for a timely discussion of the potential impact of proposed alcohol policy changes in Ontario. As Pegeen Walsh, OPHA's Executive Director shared, we need to work together to ensure the health impacts are part of the conversation.

Please like, comment, and share this tweet from @AlcoholPolicyON (OPHA Alcohol WG):

Great piece of Monday morning news. 

This morning, Minister Elliott announced announce an additional $174 million in funding to address the critical gaps in Ontario's system and to support patients and families living with mental health and addictions challenges.

This year's additional mental health and addiction funding will include:

With the 2019 Ontario budget came many changes to alcohol policy.

 Current research by Myran shows why Ontarians should be concerned about these changes.

That mental health apps might share your data without telling you adds to a string of worrying revelations about what apps are doing with the health information we entrust to them.

Hi everyone,

Some pretty exciting news about Intersections in the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (KFL&A) region! Youth Diversion (host agency of Intersections program) has received a $399 200 grant from the Trillium Foundation to support expansion of the program. You can read more about it here.

People under age 50 with hearing loss misuse prescription opioids at twice the rate of their hearing peers, and are also more likely to misuse alcohol and other drugs, a new national study finds. This means that health care providers may need to take special care when treating pain and mental health conditions in deaf and hard-of-hearing young adults, the researchers say.

Malcolm Gladwell, the author of several bestsellers including Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers, just published an article in The New Yorker on the difference between permitting and promoting cannabis use. In it, he discusses the links between cannabis use and mental health.

In May of 2018, the Canadian Psychological Association responded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's report by acknowledging that the profession failed to provide treatment that respects the cultural values and beliefs of Indigenous people.

A recent article by the Regina Leader-Post discusses the potential of standard psychological practice to harm First Nations clients and the efforts of four clinical psychology students to learn ways to deliver psychological services in a culturally-appropriate and respectful manner. 

Both CNN and TIME recently published news releases on the state of mental health across the country. 

According to the American Psychological Association, Generation Z (ages 15-21) reported the worst mental health. Additionally, stress was prevalent across all generations with Millennials (ages 22-37) reporting the highest overall, followed by Gen X (ages 38-53), and then Gen Z. 

Today, the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) announced that they are withdrawing their legal case against the Toronto Police Service (TPS). This comes as a result of new procedures that were developed by the TPS in collaboration with the IPC to restrict the disclosure of attempted suicide-related information to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.