Search results

This paper aims to examine the progress of the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) over the first five years of its existence toward stated goals while existing outside the constitutional framework of health care funding.

The paper is a review of the outputs of the MHCC with emphasis on its first‐ever mental health strategy for Canada, knowledge exchange network, anti‐stigma initiatives, randomized controlled trial of housing‐first initiatives for the homeless mentally ill, as well as other completed projects.

Consultation and collaboration are essential aspects of working successfully with people with lived experience of mental illness, their families, health professionals, and governments. At the same time, when expectations are high, needs are great, and opinions are varied, disappointment and frustration are inevitable.

Although the MHCC initiatives include the largest single funded research project in mental health in Canadian history, and evaluation is built into other initiatives, the political dimension of its work does not lend itself to research evaluation.

The creation of an organization outside the constitutional framework of health care funding may allow for a catalytic role in precipitating change.

The emphasis on anti‐stigma campaigns targeted at defined populations (youth, health professionals, workforce, journalists) may combat the discrimination people with mental illnesses and their families experience.

The paper shows that the Canadian experience is, to date, largely undescribed in the peer‐reviewed literature and may influence other jurisdictions. One of its interventions is already being replicated internationally.

On 1 April 1978, the Israeli peace movement burst into world consciousness when an estimated 25,000 Israelis demonstrated in Tel Aviv to urge the administration of Prime Minister Menachem Begin to continue peace negotiations with Egypt. A grassroots group called Peace Now is credited with organizing and leading that demonstration. Today, the “peace camp” refers to left‐wing political parties and organizations that hold dovish positions on the Arab‐Israeli conflict and the Palestinian issue. While some figures in the Labor Party view themselves as the peace movement's natural leader, political parties further to the left like the Citizens Rights Movement (CRM) and Mapam are more dovish. In the last 10 years, many grassroots peace organizations have, like Peace Now, formed outside the political party system, with the goal of influencing public opinion and eventually having an impact on policy makers. Peace Now is still the largest, most visible and influential of those organizations.

Productivity in the UK has been improving over the last few years. A couple of small cheers are in order. However, much of the improvement has had little to do with the efforts of work study practitioners — it has been due more to the changes in government policy and changes in attitude of senior managers. Organisations have been slimmed down and made leaner and fitter. This applies across all industries and across the public/private sector divide. However, the changes we have seen have been largely one‐off exercises. If improvements are going to continue, we now need the systematic analysis and development of activities to be undertaken. But not in the old way!