I first met “Alice” during my pediatric residency. She is a shy and articulate 17 year old girl, who has been struggling with depression since her early teen years. Over the past several years, she has been seeing a counsellor at her local pediatric mental health centre. She has learned to trust and rely on her …
At long last, people are talking about postpartum depression. Dismissed for years as no more than a touch of the baby blues or else unheard of entirely, postpartum depression — or PPD, as it is often known — has become an open subject. Healthcare providers are aware of it, many nurses and physicians routinely screen mothers for …
Canada’s prisons have become the “asylums of the 21st century”. Yet despite evidence from the Mental Health Commission of Canada that the current criminal system is failing to address mental illness in our prisons, the Government of Canada continues to push a “tough on crime” agenda. According to a report from the federal prison ombudsman, …
Psychiatric medications are valuable tools for treating many mental illnesses. Some psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia, can only be effectively treated with medication. However, pharmaceuticals have become the default treatment for all mental illnesses in Canada, even when the evidence suggests that medications are not effective for all of the conditions for which they are …
Stigma is a significant challenge that infects every issue surrounding mental illness. Mass media depictions of mental illness and treatments of psychiatric disorders perpetuate misconceptions by repeated presentation of negative stereotypes. The impact is seen when patients with mental illness are reluctant to seek the treatment they need. Negative depictions of Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) contribute …
In our society, the disease of schizophrenia is shrouded in fear, isolation and ignorance. The initial symptoms, which include hearing voices, mental delusions and paranoia, may at first be attributed to a bad day, an odd drug reaction, or any other number of conditions. Someone having these experiences does not suspect that a journey is …