policy and strategy

The Housing First approach starts with providing homes to chronically unhoused people, but it doesn’t stop there — and that’s what makes it so effective.

In this podcast by the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, Dr. Tim Aubry shares findings from a major Housing First study and the keys to a successful program.

Housing First is a housing intervention for people with serious mental illness who have experienced long-term homelessness. This approach is backed by decades worth research in the United States, Canada, and Europe. It has been identified as a preferred housing intervention in national, state, or provincial housing policy in the United States and Canada, and increasingly across Europe as well.

Advocacy updates from the Ontario Psychiatric Association

A naturally occurring retirement community (NORC) is a regular residential building that has naturally become home to a high density of older adults. Could NORCs help older adults age in place? And, if so, how?

In this webinar, you will learn about:

• NORCs and NORC support programs
• how NORC programs impact aging in place
• the University Health Network’s NORC Innovation Centre and NORC Program.

Originally live streamed: November 28, 2023

This November 21st panel discussion focused on substance use stigma, as influenced by structural factors, such as laws and policies, and historical, geographic and economic factors.

Our panel explored the following in a three-section approach:

• What is structural stigma?
• What are interventions that organizations can use to address stigma?
• How can service providers avoid reproducing stigma in their interventions?

Originally live streamed: November 21, 2023

In June 2021, the Canadian government passed Bill C-218, which lifted the federal ban on single-event sports betting. Ontario subsequently launched its regulated sports betting program in April 2022, expanding the types of sports betting and sportsbooks available.

With these legislative developments, the sports betting structure is changing in Ontario. Mental health and addiction professionals need to understand what the sports betting landscape looks like now.

Yoga for Wellness and Recovery - October Sessions

Wednesdays

4 - 5 PM

IN PERSON

1025 Queen Street West

Register here: Yoga for Wellness & Recovery: November Sessions Tickets, Multiple Dates | Eventbrite

🚨Reminder!🚨Join the Mental Health Commission of Canada for a webinar on mental health and the high cost of living! We'll dive into financial insecurity, food and housing affordability, mental health, and more. Mark your calendar and reserve your spot at the link below. We look forward to seeing you there!

Toronto’s Drug Checking Service is a community-led public health service offering people who use drugs timely and detailed information on the contents of their drugs, as well as a major source of real-time information on Canada’s unregulated drug supply since 2019.

The MHCC is seeking a consultant to develop a toolkit to guide the implementation of IDEALSS, a proposed comprehensive, integrated equity framework to guide mental health policy and programming.

Alcohol-linked causes lead to approximately 17,000 Canadian deaths annually. However, alcohol products sold in Canada are not required to be labelled with their health risks. In this commentary, the authors offer rationales for why it is important to mandate labelling of all alcohol products, summarize Canadian initiatives to legislate alcohol warning labels and address myths and misconceptions about alcohol labels.

Join us for our upcoming HRI Talk, titled “Five Years of Legal Cannabis in Canada: What Have We Learned?”. This session will shed light on how the change in cannabis’s legal status has affected the landscape of mental health and substance use research and treatment. Our panel of experts will explore various facets of cannabis legalization, focusing on the public health and research dimensions of this transformative policy change.

Buzz Kill: The Corporatization of Cannabis is the definitive account of cannabis legalization in Canada. It is a story of cronyism, greed, corruption, and strategic deceit of the public. Buzz Kill also describes more humane alternatives to drug policy reform which prioritize public health and social justice over corporate profits. Buzz Kill is published by Black Rose Books, Montreal.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada is holding public consultations on a proposed approach to promote more equitable access and outcomes in mental health policy and programs. The IDEALSS framework integrates intersectionality, decolonization, health equity, anti-racism, lived and living experience, social determinants and sex- and gender-based analysis models.

The Ontario Public Health Association’s Alcohol Workgroup is pleased to host this webinar that will provide an overview of the recent Canadian Alcohol Policy Evaluation (CAPE) project as it pertains to Ontario, as well as provide updates regarding OPHA’s recent actions to influence alcohol policy and upcoming opportunities to get involved.

On behalf of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP) Substance Advisory Committee, we are inviting you to attend our 2 day symposium!

The Ontario Drug Policy Symposium will allow Ontario police personnel and health care practitioners to take a deep dive into critical issues regarding opioids, mental health and addiction, and drug overdose that have a serious effect on our communities.

The Drug Strategy Network of Ontario (DSNO) represents 43 drug strategies across the province and have developed a series of three fact sheets advocating for an end to the drug poisoning crisis.

Black Diplomacy: Disrupting Systems of Anti-Blackness with Policy Advocacy

Tuesday, May 16, 2023 @ 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET

Presented by: Candies Kotchapaw MSW, BSW, CYW

This course will build on the “Community-based Social Work in Policymaking: Giving Power Back to the Profession” webinar and take a deeper dive into the topics outlined.

Discussion topics will include:

Community-based Social Work in Policymaking Giving Power Back to the Profession

May 2, 2023 @ 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET

Presented by: Candies Kotchapaw MSW, BSW, CYW

This webinar will focus on community-based social work as a tool to influence and impact provincial, federal and international policymaking. Topics that will be covered include:

This is a recording of a presentation to the Drug Strategy Network of Ontario (DSNO) on February 28, 2023. Karen McDonald, Lead of Toronto’s Drug Checking Service (TDCS) and Research Program Manager at the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation at St. Michael’s Hospital, discusses the model used in Toronto, trends they are seeing in the unregulated drug supply, and the implications of those findings as they relate to the ongoing opioid poisoning crisis.