In 2007, the federal government, in collaboration with provincial and territorial governments, announced the creation of the Mental Health Commission of Canada – an organization mandated to be the catalyst for the development and implementation of a mental health strategy for Canada, one that will ultimately lead to a deeply transformed mental health system.
We collaborated with the commission to design and deliver a series of 15 regional stakeholder dialogues, along with a parallel online consultation process open to all individuals and organizations with an interest in this issue.
Over 450 people, from coast to coast to coast, participated in the commission’s regional dialogues, between January and April 2009. In addition, more than 1,700 members of the general public and 300 stakeholder groups availed themselves of the opportunity to share their views with the commission online between February 11 and March 31, 2009, completing some 1,800 online workbooks and providing over 465,00 words of comments.