Mental Health is Health.
Those four words are at the heart of CAMH’s most ambitious public awareness campaign in years.
Starting today, you will see those words all over the Greater Toronto Area on billboards, bus stops and TTC stations and throughout CAMH. You will see them on television and social media channels.
The message is as simple as it is powerful: the mental health of all Canadians must be taken as seriously, and treated as urgently, as physical health.
“We must not stand silent when the human, the civil and the health care rights of people with mental illness are not recognized and respected,” says CAMH President and CEO Dr. Catherine Zahn. “Advocacy is deeply embedded in the CAMH mission and it’s time to amp it up.”
“Our health care system is a point of national pride, but when evidence informed treatments for mental illness are not covered, we can’t call it universal,” says CAMH Foundation President and CEO Deborah Gillis.
CAMH prides itself on being a national and global leader in mental health advocacy. As Canada’s largest provider of front line mental health research, treatment and education, the people at CAMH who dedicate their lives to this cause every working day know all too well the gap between what is and what can be.
What this campaign is saying is that the challenges we face are bigger than CAMH. What this campaign is saying is that all Canadians need to partner in this fight for justice for the millions of people who deal with mental illness, including addictions, each and every year. What this campaign is saying is that all Canadians need to stand up and demand the mental health care that every Canadian deserves.
CAMH believes that all Canadians should have access to publicly funded, life-saving treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy and magnetic brain stimulation. CAMH believes that robust treatments and social supports should be available to all, whether the disorder is cancer, diabetes or depression.
CAMH believes that Mental Health is Health.
