The Canadian Mental Health Association, Durham branch recently received an award of excellence for their work on improving access to health services for French speaking residents of Durham. Presented by the Entité4, the award recognized CMHA Durham for their contribution to the development of French-language health services in the community. Entité4 is an organization which works closely with three Local Health Integration Networks to support organizations who want to improve their active offer of French language services.
The award is well deserved, as CMHA Durham has invested considerably in improving its capacity to offer services in French. CMHA staff actively participate in French speaking collaborative events, such as the French Language Service Collaborative at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and the Francophone Community Table on Health, an advisory committee that focuses on improving service collaboration in the French speaking community. More recently, CMHA Durham hired a bilingual receptionist who will be working with the branch’s intake team to offer triage services for clients in both official languages.
CMHA Durham continues to enhance its capacity to offer services in French by working closely with the French Language Services entity, and by seeking ways to attract bilingual speaking candidates for job positions as they become available.
Congratulations to CMHA Durham!