It's Not About Us: The Secret to Transforming the Mental Health and Addiction System in Canada

It's Not About Us is a guide to improving the client experience with the mental health and addiction system across Canada. It examines the traditional and current pathology-oriented medical model within which all of our services are built. It looks at the ways in which that model prevents the transformation we need if we want to really change our system. This book presents a new way to think about what it means to be client-centered, not only at an individual level, but also at the level of system design and operation. It is based on compelling principles and a real success story - a program in Nova Scotia that transformed its way of providing service, according to a new way of defining and understanding what it means to be client-centered. This program significantly improved quickness and ease of access for clients, and also enhanced its capacity to prevent addictions and mental illness.

In Canada, many have tried to improve services. They have instinctively called for more money and more therapists and psychiatrists, or have focused on improving clinical skills of staff. Unfortunately, that simply perpetuates more of the same problematic approach, one that has repeatedly failed to address the concerns of the clients and the public.

What has not yet happened is the one fundamental thing that is required. We need to change the perspective used to design all components of the system. We need to replace our traditional model that is designed from an expert and management-focused viewpoint, and start to look at the system the way clients and the public see and experience it. If you or a loved one have been affected by addiction and mental health issues, and have tried to or wanted to advocate for change in the system, this book will help you know how to do that. If you work in the mental health and addiction system in Canada, this book will help guide you through a more fundamental change than we have seen in many decades.

It is time for change ... and this is a call to action.

Author: Todd Leader
Publisher: Leader Development
Published: 10/14/2016
Pages: 284
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.92lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.64d
ISBN: 9780993817335

About the Author
Leader, Todd: - Todd Leader is a psychologist and a social worker who has spent the last 26 years leading health service development and transformation, as well as health promotion, particularly in the areas of mental health, addictions, and primary health care. He has also been teaching in the Faculty of Science at Saint Mary's University for the same 26 years. Todd has earned the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Saint Mary's University Students' Association, and health services under his leadership have earned two international best practice awards, and a leadership award for excellence in women's health. Most recently, he was appointed by the Nova Scotia Minister of Health and Wellness to the Ministerial Panel on Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions. Todd has spent his whole career working as an advocate for evidence-based, client- and community-centered programs, systems, and public policy.