This week, Mental Health Research Canada released a new report, Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace, in partnership with Canada Life and Workplace Strategies for Mental Health.

This study examines indicators of mental health in Canadian workplaces. It is informed by data gathered online from over 5,500 respondents by Pollara Strategic Insights in March / April 2023.

A few interesting findings include:

There are few effective treatments for depression in people with bipolar disorder, especially fast-acting ones. Nitrous oxide (an anesthetic also known as laughing gas) has been shown to work quickly in a small set of studies of adults with treatment-resistant major depressive disorder.

All of Ontario is seeing an increase in drug overdoses, but the Northern communities, such as the City of Greater Sudbury, are experiencing an even larger increase. Governments are addressing this problem by approving and funding supervised consumption services, where people who use drugs can bring their own substances and use them under supervision. One such supervised-consumption site, The Spot, was approved in Sudbury but has not received provincial funding.

Lack of data on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with developmental disabilities (DDs) results in the inability of health surveillance systems to accurately determine the impact of the pandemic on marginalized populations and support needed. More specifically, there is a need to generate more data on the pandemic experiences of racialized people with DDs.

The Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health (CICMH) is happy to announce two new free virtual courses:

A new infosheet by the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health highlights the definition and dimensions of loneliness, the impacts of loneliness on mental health, the relationship between isolation and connection, as well as tips for coping with loneliness when it appears in our lives.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently launched a new framework for meaningful engagement people living with noncommunicable diseases, and mental health and neurological conditions!

The guide is also available in:

Check it out! → https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240073074

The Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health (CICMH) is presently working on a toolkit on trauma-informed care on campus. This project aims to outline what trauma-informed care is, how it relates to campus mental health, and how trauma-informed care can be integrated into work across campus. We are looking for collaborators to contribute to this toolkit and reviewers to look over the draft before it is published.

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The Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health (CICMH) is completing the writing phase for our Accessibility & Accommodations Toolkit, and we are currently looking for reviewers to help us edit the document.