As health care providers, how can we listen more effectively to the people we serve?
What signs do we need to hear and heed?
Families and supports are the anchors in our lives - how do we include them as partners in the journey to recovery?
How can we walk alongside consumers and families, while guiding and being guided by their stories?
Enabling providers to link collaboratively with consumers and families holds new promise for the future of mental health care.
As a consumer, family member or provider, we invite you to come ponder these questions with us at the 12th Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Care Conference to be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia from June 23 to 25, 2011. Our theme, Charting a New Course to Better Care : Stronger Links between Consumers, Families and Health Care Providers, is intended to showcase several aspects of the triangle of care.
Keynote presentations from the Meriden Family Programme which has been promoting the development of family-sensitive, evidence-based mental health services since 1998 with a particular emphasis on the implementation of family work, will present how families, consumers and providers can collaborate effectively and give new direction to mental health outcomes. The new position paper on collaborative mental health care developed by the Canadian Psychiatric Association and College of Family Physicians of Canada's working group will be presented here by Dr. Nick Kates. This is an exciting new chapter in the evolution of collaborative mental health care in Canada.
As we prepare an array of plenary presentations, scientific papers, dynamic workshops, symposia, discussion forums and venues for networking, please also consider how beautiful and inviting Halifax is in the summer time for you and your families to come, visit and stay awhile!
In the meantime, please visit our website, www.shared-care.ca for developing information about the conference. If you have any questions, please e-mail greta@shared-care.ca or phone 902-482-0531.
Click here for the Call for Abstracts. The submission deadline is January 24, 2011.
Sincere regards,
Ajantha Jayabarathan and Cheryl Billard
Co-Chairs, 12th Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Care Conference
