The final webinar in CMHA Ontario’s popular four-part series, Enhancing Our Capacity to Support Refugees, is scheduled for May 12. The fourth webinar, Help Build a Framework to Advance Equity in Mental Health in Ontario, features speakers Uppala Chandrasekera, Deqa Farah and Sheela Subramanian and will share CMHA Ontario’s Advancing Equity in Ontario framework and engage participants in an interactive consultation. The purpose of the consultation is to gain feedback on what concrete actions are needed at the level of individual/service provider interactions, organizations, planning and provincial policy to advance greater equity in mental health in Ontario.
The rest of the series can now be viewed at any time online. More than 500 participants took part in the first three webinars in the four-part series in February, March and April 2016. These sessions focused on:
- Part I – Supporting Adult Refugee Mental Health (speakers: Dr. Branka Agic, Mahmoud Allouch, Sheela Subramanian) which provides background information and key resources about equity issues in mental health and adult refugee mental health in Ontario, with a focus on the Syrian refugee population that has recently arrived. This session is recommended for anyone interested in or involved in refugee resettlement in Ontario.
- Part II – Supporting Child and Youth Refugee Mental Health (speakers: Dr. Priya Raju, Dr. Debra Stein, Sheela Subramanian) which provides social service providers with hands on guidance on supporting refugee children and youth mental health. This session is particularly recommended for anyone working with refugee kids and youth in Ontario.
- Part III – Stories of Migration and Mental Health (speakers: Jane, Maya and Sujatha, Sheela Subramanian) which explores the relationship between migration, settlement, the social determinants and mental health, with a focus on the lived experiences of three peer facilitators from CMHA Toronto’s Opening Doors Project. This session is recommended for anyone interested in migration and mental health, or anyone interested in lived experience and peer support in Ontario.
Please visit the webinar page at www.ontario.cmha.ca/refugeemh to watch the first three webinars and sign up for the 4th.
What our participants said about the webinars:
“It was actually one of the best webinars that I’ve participated in. The presenters were fantastic – spoke clearly, used humour, provided relevant information, answered questions. Great use of the webinar platform, additional resource information, the chat functionality, and a moderator. THANK YOU!!!”
“Thank you for putting this on – you are one of few organizations filling a massive gap in knowledge translation right now.”