International initiatives of the Montreal WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre

The Montreal WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre stands out through its in-depth knowledge of mental health issues around the world, particularly in Latin America. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Montreal Collaborating Centre has become involved in various initiatives to influence::

  • Mental health policies
  • Mental health at the level of primary care
  • Mental health in emergency and disaster situations
  • Training in mental health
  • Psychosocial rehabilitation, such as employment support andmental health in the workplace
  • Mental health services for people with intellectual disabilities

Montreal Collaborating Centre projects in Latin America

Guatemala

After the release of the WHO's world mental health report published in 2001, Guatemala decided to renew its mental health policy. Until then, the Guatemalan Ministry of Health had not given high priority to mental health care, which received less than 1% of the country’s mental health budget, almost all of which went to a single psychiatric hospital. Their policies also did not account for the cultural differences of the Mayas, a group that forms 60% of the Guatemalan population.

Since 1992, the Montreal Collaborating Centre has been working with the Guatemalan Ministry of Health, the Canadian Embassy, and the Mayan organization Médicos descalzos, an NGO working to promote Mayan medical traditions, to better understand the practices of the indigenous Mayan population in the region of Chinique in order to facilitate access to mental health care for this ethnic group. The Montreal Collaborating Centre also supports the directors of Médicos descalzos, which risks losing its offices in the local Catholic Church under pressure from the priest of the diocese.

Dominica

The Montreal Collaborating Centre has three on-going projects in Dominica, a country of 70,000 people and only one psychiatrist:

  • Improving mental health services. In 2007, visits to Dominica revealed a notable improvement in the organization of outpatient mental health care. However, problems persist at the inpatient psychiatric units of the Princess Margaret Hospital in the capital of Roseau due to a lack of adequate adherence to the Mental Health Plan.
  • Creating a national mental health policy. Marc Laporta, MD, along with his colleague Ian Bradley and McGill medical student Anton Parker, met with representatives from the Dominican government and conducted a series of focus groups made up of community organization members, patients, caregivers and health practitioners to gain a better understanding of the situation. The subsequent analysis will soon become the foundation for a true mental health policy for Dominica.
  • Training a student in global mental health. Anton Parker, a student in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University, participated in the week-long fact-finding mission in Dominica and gained invaluable experience in the field.

Belize

According to popular belief in Belize, mental illness is caused by "bad spirits". As a result, people with mental illnesses are ostracized and often end up penniless on the street. This is why Montreal Collaborating Centre projects in Belize target stigmatization:

  • Collaboration with the Mental Health Program in Belize. This project aims at providing Belizean nurse practitioners and primary care workers with the tools necessary to ensure the early detection of depression and anxiety disorders.
  • Training in global mental health. Patrick Lawlor and Virginia Ladouceur, two medical students at McGill University, spent a month with clinicians in Belize. The goal of this training was to try and destigmatize mental health problems in a country that has only one psychiatrist per 300,000 people. Professionals in Belize received practical clinical training while the McGill students learned how to address ethnicity and culture in their practice.

Read the final report for more details.

Barbados

The Montreal Collaborating Centre is working with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Barbados to create an emergency and disaster response plan.

Jamaica

Lorin Young, a resident in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University and a specialist in global mental health, is working on a research protocol that she intends to carry out in Jamaica in 2010-2011.

Montreal Collaborating Centre projects in Asia

Indonesia

In 2005, Marc Laporta, MD, provided a series of training sessions for psychosocial workers in Aceh, Indonesia in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami. A year later, he met with Indonesian students in Montreal to share his expertise.

Vietnam

Marc Laporta, MD, evaluates and trains mental health professionals in Hanoi, Vietnam. His last visit in 2003 addressed the clinical aspects of managing patients with schizophrenia.

Montreal Collaborating Centre projects in Europe

Spain

Mental health in the workplace has become such a pressing issue that the WHO recommends that all of its member states make it a component of their mental health policies.

The Montreal Collaborating Centre has made this a priority theme by launching a comparative Quebec-Catalonia study, which compares the mental health programs of two companies—one in Montreal and one in Barcelona—that employ more than one thousand people.

The researchers have:

  • Measured the scope of mental health problems—particularly depression—among employees at these two companies
  • Measured the direct and indirect costs associated with these mental health problems
  • Described how each company manages mental health problems, either through employee assistance programs, prevention programs, mental health promotion, return-to-work management, or strong ties with the health sector

Read the final report to identify the obstacles that prevent companies, as well as affected individuals and their families, from effectively managing mental health problems as well as to define best practices in this area.

France

The Montreal Collaborating Centre's activities in France are mainly carried out in conjunction with the WHO Collaborating Centre in Lille. Three projects are currently ongoing:

  • Study of mental health in the general population. This is a vast international study aimed at assessing the prevalence of the main mental disorders in the population and describing the social perceptions of mental illness. So far, 63,000 people from 11 different countries (mostly from France) have participated in the study. The Montreal Collaborating Centre is trying to include Quebec and Guadeloupe in the study.
  • Role of elected representatives in mental health policies. Local elected officials are very active in France, and 45 municipalities have developed local mental health councils. Their work can serve as an example for the Montreal Collaborating Centre.
  • Training program for peer helpers. The Association québécoise de réadaptation psychosociale (AQRP) selected a dozen peer helpers in Quebec to train their counterparts in France.

Germany

The Montreal Collaborating Centre's work in Germany deals with access to paid work for people with severe mental health problems.
The Lebenswelten organization in Berlin also worked with the Montreal Collaborating Centre to start a restaurant that hires people with mental illnesses. The next goal: launch a 400-bed hotel with staff made up almost entirely of people who suffer from a mental illness.

Sweden

A professor emeritus at Karolinska University in Stockholm and a member of the Swedish Parliament asked the Montreal Collaborating Centre for a report on how mental health is managed in the workplace in Canada. The goal is to reinforce mental health at work. The Montreal Collaborating Centre produced an in-depth report on the programs implemented by the Canadian, Quebec and Ontario governments and the Canadian Mental Health Commission.