Attempts to raise awareness are vitally important, as people with mental illness still suffer numerous social inequities. This is especially so for people with the most severe mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia.  Read the article at Montreal Gazette…

OTTAWA, ONTARIO (October 28, 2015)—The Royal has named Dr. Jean Martin Beaulieu the inaugural recipient of The Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research which supports Canadian early-career researchers in mental health and encourages them to continue to pursue their research in Canada. The annual prize provides $100,000 to support the recipient’s research activities.

Dr. Beaulieu is a researcher and an associate professor in the department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Laval University. Through his research, Dr. Beaulieu is seeking to gain a better understanding of how Lithium – a common treatment for bipolar disorder – works at a molecular level with the hope of developing new and better treatments for mood disorders and other mental illnesses. More information here and here.

Police need to rethink training and procedures to make them more effective, Vancouver Sun editorial says

Last week’s report in The Vancouver Sun that the number of persons killed in police shootings in British Columbia has now reached seven — already tied for the highest number in the last 12 years but with more than two months yet to run (and we know this largely because this newspaper now keeps its own annual tabulation) — must cause deep concern to all reasonable people. Especially when it is reported that more than half of the 48 people killed since 2004 were experiencing some kind of mental health crisis when fatally shot.  Read the rest of this editorial at the Vancouver Sun…

The project is called Le temps d’une soupe, and it aims to bring Montrealers into greater sympathy with those who sleep on the street or in shelters. The central part of the work is a platform where pairs of strangers are seated in matching chairs (no two pairs the same), given a bowl of soup, and invited to talk together while they eat. Mediators prompt the conversation with a card containing a question or piece of information about homelessness, and also step in if an exchange gets too heated or uncomfortable. Read this story at The Globe and Mail…