The Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health 2009 Grant Recipients
The Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health is pleased to announce its 2008 grants recipients. In April 2009, the Foundation invited community-based groups across the country to apply for funding of projects that would directly benefit people affected by mental illness. Funding was allocated to projects aimed at building front-line capacity to provide community-based support for those affected by mental illness or for those supporting them in a non-professional capacity (e.g. family, friends).
"Trustees were deeply impressed with the quality and worthiness of applications received. With only $1 million available for disbursement, the Grants Advisory Committee did an excellent job assessing the applications received and in making recommendations to the trustees as to how those funds could be best allocated. The Committee was invaluable in helping to make sure the Foundation’s money will have the greatest positive impact possible on patients and their families," notes James Roche, Chairman of the Canada Post Foundation for Mental Health.
More than 200 applications for funding were received and the Foundation is pleased to provide the following organizations—from across Canada—funding (ranging from $10,000 - $75,000) for their mental health-related programs:
Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA): Sault Ste. Marie Branch
Program name: Concurrent Disorders Certification Training
Location: Sault Ste. Marie/Algoma Region, Ontario
Objective: To train and certify 25 case workers in the mental illness and addiction areas in order to offer services to consumers in a collaborative, interdisciplinary team approach.
Impact: The integration of activities will promote better care to individuals in terms of treatment decisions and care plans. Co-ordinated treatment will be available for clients with multiple disorders, concurrently and in one place.
Website: www.cmhassm.com
Yorktown & Family Centre
Program name: Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Objective: To implement the Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy model at the Yorktown Child and Family Centre. This model is used for assessing traumas such as sexual or physical abuse or witnessing violence. The sessions will be offered to children/youth and their caregivers.
Impact: Improved Post Traumatic Stress treatment, with the objective for children and youth of decreasing levels of depression, anxiety, externalized behaviours, sexualized behaviours, trauma-related shame and increasing interpersonal trust and social competence. For caregivers, the objective is decreased levels of depression, emotional distress about the abuse, increased support for the child and improved parenting practices.
Website: www.yorktownfamilyservices.com/cfc/home.cfm
CMHA: Niagara Branch
Program name: Trauma Counselling
Location: St. Catharine's, Niagara Falls and Fort Erie, Ontario
Objective: To expand short-term counselling sessions to individuals new to Canada, as well as to individuals who have experienced recent loss of work, triggering post-traumatic events.
Impact: Enable residents of these locations, many of whom are economically disadvantaged, to access services that would not be available to them due to an inability to pay for such services or to a lack of transportation to access them.
Website: www.cmhaniagara.ca
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum (FAS) Treatment and Education Centre Inc.
Program name: Direct Client Services Program
Location: Hastings and Prince Edward Counties, Ontario
Objective: To provide direct client services to those suffering from FAS including support groups and various social and sporting activities; to increase community knowledge of FAS; and to promote volunteer involvement.
Impact: Increase support services for consumers, families, and caregivers. Provide activities that complement the treatment of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Provide home visits for social, as well as medical, support.
Website: www.starflashdesign.com/fastec
Elizabeth Fry Society of Ottawa
Program name: Services to Women and Youth Through Mental Health Courts
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Objective: To provide counselling and programming for women and youth coming through Adult and Youth Mental Health Court.
Impact: Fulfillment of conditions imposed by the Adult and Youth Mental Health Court, thereby avoiding a custodial sentence due to breach of conditions. Through individual and group counselling, assist people in overcoming addictions and in managing mental health conditions in order to stay housed in the community.
Website: www.efryottawa.com
Niagara Child and Youth
Program name: The Parent Connection
Location: Niagara Region, Ontario
Objective: To encourage optimum parent-child interactions and to strengthen the ability of parents to manage an atypical or difficult child. The program will also assist with the social, emotional and cognitive development of the child.
Impact: Children from two to six years of age, with moderate to severe mental health concerns, will learn the social skills and coping techniques required to attend community child care, junior and senior kindergarten programs successfully. Parents and caregivers will have support and training to not only cope but ensure transfer of learning through appropriate reinforcement.
Website: www.ncys.ca
BC Schizophrenia Society
Program Name: Strengthening Families Together Program
Location: communities throughout British Columbia
Objective: To provide support and information to families who are dealing with mental illness. A trainer will be hired to train regional co-ordinators and key volunteers in support group facilitation and in program delivery.
Impact: Expansion of the program to regions currently not served.
Website: www.bcss.org
CMHA: Richmond Branch
Program name: Wellness Program
Location: Richmond, British Columbia
Objective: To address the physical health needs of those with mental illness through nutrition counselling, smoking cessation support and facilitating visits to community fitness centres. The funds will provide a part time co-ordinator and fees to cover the different activities.
Impact: Better nutritional habits, improved fitness, and decreased dependency on smoking.
Website: www.richmond.cmha.bc.ca
Saskatoon Housing Coalition
Program name: Addressing Hoarding Issues
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Objective: To develop an approach to intervention and support to individuals who have severe hoarding behaviours, resulting in health and safety issues and risk of eviction. These individuals have been diagnosed with schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Impact: Clients acquire better coping skills, allowing them to remain in the community, as opposed to living in a shelter or a mental health facility.
Website: www.saskatoonhealthregion.ca
Schizophrenia Society of Alberta
Program name: Peer Support Outreach Program
Location: areas outside Calgary, Alberta
Objective: To employ individuals, who are living successfully with schizophrenia, as outreach workers to provide peer support to individuals having difficulty coping with the disease.
Impact: This will be an opportunity for employment for those living successfully with schizophrenia in a supportive work environment that promotes wellness and creates a sense of purpose and belonging. It will also reduce the social isolation of others with struggling with schizophrenia and diminish the need for hospitalization.
Website: www.schizophrenia.ab.ca
CMHA: NWT
Program name: Multidisciplinary Collaborative Problem-Solving for Children and Youth at Risk
Location: Yellowknife (NWT) and the Aboriginal Communities of N’dilo, Dettah and Behchoko
Objective: To provide timely, solution-focused interventions for families whose children, up to 18 years, are experiencing mental health and / or addiction issues at home, at school, or in the community.
Impact: Effective and sustainable intervention solutions that de-escalate behaviours that exclude children from participation in family, school and community life. The project will create partnerships and knowledge across disciplines. Young people, families and professionals will be able to work together to produce more effective assessments and to develop more appropriate intervention and integration plans.
Website: www.cmha.ca
Self-Help Connection
Program name: Partners in Recovery
Location: Rural areas of Nova Scotia
Objective: To develop self-help groups for people living with mental health issues and their families. This will be done by assisting mental health consumers set up groups for persons living with depression and bipolar disorder, assisting family members and friends to set up groups to help with care-giving. This will include meetings with professionals and trained volunteers to provide information on resources available for such groups.
Impact: Consumers will have a new support system within the community, develop leadership and facilitation skills, and have a self-management tool to help with their illness. Families dealing with mental illness will have support in the community. The extra support and skills that consumers receive will complement the help received from the provincial mental health system in Nova Scotia.
Website: www.selfhelpconnection.ca
Ami Québec
Program name: Tele-workshops and Tele-support: Reaching Out to Underserved English Communities in Quebec
Location: English communities in Quebec
Objective: To support families struggling with mental illness through the expansion of existing tele-workshops, the addition of a tele-support component moderated by an Ami Quebec staff member and the installation of a 1-800 line for information and support for those living outside the Montreal area.
Impact: Tele-workshops and tele-support will help those suffering from mental illness to maintain their well-being and help families enhance their care-giving skills.
Website: www.amiquebec.org
Centre de la Croix blanche de Montréal
Program name: Service Accessibility Project (SAP)
Location: Montréal, Quebec
Objective: To offer after-hours support to people in need of immediate assistance for mental health problems, diagnosed or not.
Impact: Those who are in need will benefit from rapid and accessible service, improving the probability of them quickly regaining a functional balance and better mental health. It will also have an impact on the Centre’s partners who will be able, through a strengthening of the front-line service chain, to refer their clients to the Centre’s services.
Website: www.centrecroixblanche.com
Laing House
Program name: Peer Support Network
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Objective: To help address issues faced on a daily basis by youth living with mental illness: low self- esteem, feelings of hopelessness, stigma, addictions and isolation from family, friends and the community. The network will provide a forum for youth to share their experiences, strengths, insights and challenges in an informal, non-judgemental and supportive environment.
Impact: Patients will strengthen their peer support networks within and beyond Laing House, their understanding of barriers and challenges and how to address them, and increase their awareness of available community resources.
Website: www.lainghouse.org
Labrador Friendship Centre
Program name: Housing Initiative Program
Location: Happy Valley - Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador
Objective: To develop individual, accessible housing for people suffering from mental illness. By being able to continue staffing the position of Housing and Homelessness Case Worker, the Centre will provide frontline services to individuals with multiple and complex mental health needs and facilitate long-term housing solutions.
Impact: The Case Worker acts as a liaison, linking the consumer with the appropriate service agencies, thus providing a continuum of support for long term housing stability.
Website: www.lfchvgb.ca
CMHA: PEI Division
Program name: With Hope in Mind
Location: Kings County, East Prince and West Prince, Prince Edward Island
Objective: To offer a family-to-family program, delivered by trained volunteers, to educate and support family members who are dealing with mental illness.
Impact: Families learn that they do not have to cope alone. They will have a greater understanding of mood disorders, thought disorders, medications, recovery and coping skills and learn creative problem management.
Website: www.cmha.pe.ca
Metro Non-profit Housing Association
Program name: Halifax Housing Trusteeship Program
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Objective: To address housing needs of individuals who experience repeated instances of homelessness, eviction and housing instability. To also work with these individuals through a harm reduction/holistic approach that addresses health, mental health and addiction realities as they connect to housing issues.
Impact: Proposed funding will result in an increase in the number of clients who can access enriched trusteeship so as to eliminate the cycle of homelessness, promote mental health and address addiction issues. Physical health and social connections will also be fostered.
Website: www3.ns.sympatico.ca/mnpha/
Revivre - Association de soutien
Program name: Community Psycho-Educational Follow-Up Care
Location: Montréal, Quebec
Objective: To implement a program that provides psychological and educational follow-up care to people who suffer from anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder. The program will help the consumer regain and maintain a degree of independence. Support will be adapted to suit each individual and complement services offered by health institutions.
Impact: Psycho-educational follow-up care will improve the mix of services offered by Revivre, helping consumers to better understand their illness. The clients will be better equipped to detect early-warning signs and to prevent relapse, and will have a better understanding of what treatments are available. It will also improve their quality of life and help them maintain their jobs.
Website: www.revivre.org
* Although 20 organizations were provided with funding from the Foundation, the Crossroads Crisis Centre in Comox Valley, BC found out in early October that it would be closing its doors next April as part of a provincial re-organization of services. The Centre has returned the funds to the Foundation for disbursement to other worthy organizations next year.