Prime Minister Stephen Harper has named 17 people — including a Nova Scotian with bipolar disorder, a New Brunswick professor with a schizophrenic child and the federal deputy minister of health — to a mental health board led by retired Liberal senator Michael Kirby.
The fledgling Canadian Mental Health Commission "will lead a national campaign to erase the stigma of mental illness," Harper said Friday in a ceremony in Ottawa.
It will also be a cross-country clearinghouse for information on the best ways to deal with mental disorders, he said.
Harper stressed the scope of their task.
"We see the results of mental health disorders, mental illness, everywhere — among the homeless on our streets; we see it in our workplaces among co-workers felled by stress or worse, and we see it in our families, where we become intimately acquainted with the pain and suffering it causes," he said.
"It's estimated that one in five Canadians will develop some sort of mental illness in his or her lifetime. Nearly one million are plagued with a severe or persistent disorder. It is now the fastest growing category of disability insurance in Canada."
Full story
What do you hope this commission could accomplish? Where does mental health fit into your life?
More...
The fledgling Canadian Mental Health Commission "will lead a national campaign to erase the stigma of mental illness," Harper said Friday in a ceremony in Ottawa.
It will also be a cross-country clearinghouse for information on the best ways to deal with mental disorders, he said.
Harper stressed the scope of their task.
"We see the results of mental health disorders, mental illness, everywhere — among the homeless on our streets; we see it in our workplaces among co-workers felled by stress or worse, and we see it in our families, where we become intimately acquainted with the pain and suffering it causes," he said.
"It's estimated that one in five Canadians will develop some sort of mental illness in his or her lifetime. Nearly one million are plagued with a severe or persistent disorder. It is now the fastest growing category of disability insurance in Canada."
Full story
What do you hope this commission could accomplish? Where does mental health fit into your life?
More...