By Marvin Ross On April 23, Dr Mary V Seeman died at the age of 89. She was a professor emerita at the University of Toronto and first Tapscott chair in schizophrenia studies at the University. In that role “she led research that revealed the biological mechanisms underlying anti-psychotic drugs, informing drug development and guiding treatment. Her research into gender differences in schizophrenia shaped treatment guidelines and opened new avenues for clinical research.” She also established the first outpatient clinic for women affected by schizophrenia at the Centre for Addiction and mental ..read more

Here we go again. Another mental health week that talks in platitudes about having good mental health and does not mention severe mental illness and its impact on the sufferer and the sufferers family. I was planning to write about an article in the Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience that talked about how we ignore the serious for the worried well but then, I saw this very brave obituary in the Hamilton Spectator. It needs to be read and I am posting it with permission of the family. In April 2024, John died peacefully, in his home at the age of 76. John was the second child of Caesar (“Ja ..read more

By Dr David Laing Dawson At the beginning of my journey into medicine and then psychiatry, I struggled, as all students of neurology, philosophy, and psychology do, with the concept of delusion, at least delusion as the product of mental illness. What is the difference between a true belief, a lie, and a delusion? Or the difference between a harmless and shared religious delusion, and those religious delusions seen in bipolar and schizophrenia? Well, I think I sorted it out for myself over the years, and became quite comfortable with the distinctions, while maybe getting it wrong a couple of n ..read more

By Dr David Laing Dawson A school board allows a male teacher to come to class wearing outlandishly large prosthetic breasts with prominent nipples. And now an Island Health Memo (BC) to acute care hospital staff instructs nurses not to stop open use of illicit drugs in hospital rooms, but, instead, to teach patients how to inject drugs into their IV lines, provide safe equipment such as crack pipes and burner kits, and instruct in the techniques of safe needle disposal. Not to mention instructions to staff to teach “chest feeding” rather than “breast feeding” to new parents. The first idiocy ..read more

By Kathleen Mochnacki On April 9th, I watched on CBC’s Power and Politics the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Ya’ara Saks announce a 2024 Budget proposal of $500 million dollars for a Youth Mental Health Fund to help younger Canadians. Here is the Press Release:   Does this mental health fund include funding for “younger Canadians” who are experiencing their first psychotic break?  Will it ensure access to a psychiatrist, and an adequate hospital stay and supportive housing upon discharge? The Press Release reads “And, because many of them are still in school or just starti ..read more

By Dr David Laing Dawson Recently the NIMH announced that in the U.S. the prevalence of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders is between 0.25% and 0.64%. This implies that our assumption of a 1% and higher risk (and prevalence) has been wrong, or that, miraculously, progress has been made in the USA in the prevention of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, this also implies that we need not spend as much money or attention on this serious illness. But, of course, it turns out those figures arose from something called household surveys: phone calls to a representative sample of American Househ ..read more

By Dr. David Laing Dawson This clever little book was published in 1989 and is still going strong. And I was reminded of it last night while watching commentary on the Israel Hamas Gaza war, and the overnight missile and drone attacks by Iran, as I listened to pundits, commentators, military historians, retired generals, and politicians weigh in. All men of course. And what struck me from their interpretations, conclusions, advice and prognostications, was that they too learned all they need to know in kindergarten, or perhaps between JK and grade 4. But unlike the author of the original book ..read more

By Marvin Ross Over the past few months, we’ve done a number of blogs on the problems of supportive housing using a Christian charity (Indwell) as the example and published some research on how it operates by Karen Allin in Mississauga. Karen has no personal involvement with serious mental illness but she was concerned when Indwell wanted to build near her. She found my blogs and that concerned her about their competence. At the public meeting she attended, some of Indwell’s own residents came and complained about the failures of that organization. And then I heard from another resident at Ind ..read more

Karen Allin The Housing First model is based on the theory that if homelessness is caused by a lack of housing, then provide people with immediate access to affordable, supportive housing. Supports need to address: mental and physical health, substance abuse, education, employment and general life skills. Critical Characteristics of Supported Housing and Seeking Supportive Housing are two Canadian reports that provide more detail about the range of supports that residents are looking for. Some of the many supports mentioned in the reports include: 1) Support with independent living, such as co ..read more

By Douglas James Brown with an introduction by Marvin Ross Early on in my advocacy, I read the following op ed by Mr Brown that appeared in the Hamilton spectator. That was about 2005 and I was so taken with it that I got permission to have it reprinted in the website schizophrenia. Mr. Brown is a survivor of our failed system for dealing with those with an illness of the brain. He ran into a problem with a callous hospital and an inept police department that almost derailed his life even further. Fortunately, both the Hamilton Spectator and I writing in the Huffington Post, helped with public ..read more