Mental Health and Addictions Service

Articles

Stories from the front line and behind the scenes about changes we’ve made to improve the quality of our care.

	Psychologists contribute to best care experience at St. Michael’s This February, Unity Health Toronto is celebrating Psychology Month and highlighting the role of psychologists at St. Michael’s Hospital. Psychology Month is celebrated across Canada to showcase the contributions of psychologists and build awareness of how psychology works to help people live healthy and happy lives. Read the full story here
	’Think you can shrink?’ provides an alternate reality People may think they're good at giving advice, but St. Michael’s new Psychiatrist-in-Chief Dr. Tom Ungar wanted to put that to the test while also improving the way people talk about mental health issues. Read the full story here
	Peers encouraging wellness as members of mental health unit team A stock broker living the fast life in France and Luxembourg. A sales and marketing associate turned research assistant. Those two lives were traded in long ago and now Anne Borrelly and Bryan Marshall serve coffee and hand out the morning papers as part of their duties as St. Michael’s first two peer support workers on the Inpatient Mental Health Unit. Read the full story here
	Making sense of mental health through mindfulness For their first mindfulness exercise, participants of the Mindful Awareness Stabilization Training, or MAST program, practice eating a raisin. Read the full story here
	Q&A with Cheryl Proc Cheryl Proc is a team leader within the FOCUS team at the Sumac Creek Health Centre. She has worked at St. Michael’s Hospital for 13 years. Read the full story here
	“Housing First” approach can reduce alcohol-related problems among homeless people with mental illness, study finds A “Housing First” approach, where homeless people with mental illness are provided with a place to live without preconditions such as sobriety or seeing a psychiatrist, coupled with intensive case management, helps to reduce alcohol-related problems, a new study has found. Read the full story here
	Resident wellness top of mind at St. Michael’s Finding a work-life balance can be challenging. Juggling the demands of family, personal activities and work can be overwhelming. Read the full story here
	Homeless people with mental illness have more stable housing when given rent supplement and case management support It sounds simple, but it appears to be working: Give homeless people financial help to find free-market rental accommodation in the community as well as mental health support services, and the success rate in ending their homelessness is far higher than with current approaches. Read the full story here
	What’s good for the heart is good for the brain Maggie Atkinson, a lawyer and long-time HIV survivor, was shocked to realize that her father had better brain function at age 80 than she did at 45. Read the full story here
	Study finds majority of homeless adults with mental illness have high rates of cognitive deficits Nearly three-quarters of homeless adults with mental illness in Canada show evidence of cognitive deficits, such as difficulties with problem solving, learning and memory, new research has found. Read the full story here
	TIFF program provides creative outlet for mental health inpatients The Toronto International Film Festival and St. Michael’s Hospital are bringing the outside world into an inpatient unit one film at a time. Read the full story here
	Men and women use mental health services differently Women with chronic physical illnesses are more likely to use mental health services than men with similar illnesses; they also seek out mental health services six months earlier than those same men, according to new study from St. Michael’s Hospital and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Read the full story here
	Aging with HIV and AIDS: A growing social issue As the first people with HIV grow old, a new study from St. Michael’s Hospital questions whether the health care system and other government policies are prepared to meet their complex medical and social needs. Read the full story here
	More help for individuals experiencing mental health crises in Toronto Fourteen years ago, Toronto Police Service and St. Michael’s Hospital launched the first Mobile Crisis Intervention Team in the city. Read the full story here
	New program successful in reducing service and substance use among frequent health care users A program co-led by St. Michael’s Hospital could be the next widely used model to treat patients who are frequent users of the health care system and have severe addictions, often complicated by homelessness and mental health problems. Read the full story here