At Home/Chez Soi Launch a great success
Hundreds of people across the country took part in special celebrations to mark the official start of the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s At Home/Chez Soi project on November 23, 2009.
The launches were held in the five cities where research projects are in the midst of implementation. They include Moncton, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.
Each site attracted many local partners, media, and supportive community representatives.
Check back for photos and video from the events over the coming days and weeks!
View images from the launch
The Mental Health Commission of Canada is now implementing research demonstration projects in mental health and homelessness across the country.
The projects are being implemented in five different cities. They will look at the Housing First model of intervention. A total of 2285 homeless people living with a mental illness will participate. 1,325 Canadians from that group will be given a place to live, and will be offered services to assist them over the course of the initiative. The remaining participants will receive the regular services that are available in the test sites.
Participants will have to pay a portion of their rent, and be visited at least once a week by program staff. Participants will be able to choose housing within a number of different sites in a given city, including apartments and group homes.
Why Housing First?
The Housing First model is one approach to ending homelessness and helping people with lived experience get back into community life. This approach has produced positive results in other cities where it has been implemented. A comparison between different Housing First approaches and “care as usual” is being studied in all cities.
The overall goal is to provide evidence about what services and systems could best help people across Canada who are living with a mental illness and are also homeless. At the same time, the project will provide meaningful and practical support for hundreds of vulnerable Canadians.
Data from this kind of extensive research does not currently exist in Canada. The MHCC project is unique and the largest of its kind underway in the world right now.
What is the focus?
Although the primary focus of the projects is mentally ill people who are homeless, each of the sites will also have specific targets.
(Please click on a city name to learn more about each site)
- Moncton: one of Canada’s fastest growing cities, with a shortage of services for Anglophones and Francophones.
- Montreal: different mental health services provided to homeless people in Quebec.
- Toronto: ethno-cultural diversity including new immigrants who are non-English speaking.
- Vancouver: people who struggle with substance abuse and addictions.
- Winnipeg: urban Aboriginal population.
The research projects will end in 2013, and will collectively develop a body of evidence to help Canada become a world leader in providing services to homeless people living with a mental illness.
Who is involved?
The project is being overseen by Dr. Jayne Barker, MHCC Director of Policy and Research. The research lead is Dr. Paula Goering, head of the Health Systems Research and Consulting Unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
The Commission is working closely with provincial and municipal levels of government, researchers, many local service providers (people who will provide counselling, check-ups, etc.) and individuals who have experienced homelessness and mental illness.
In addition, the following groups will play or are currently playing an important role (please click on a title to learn more):
In February 2008, the Federal government allocated $110 million to the Mental Health Commission of Canada to find ways to help the growing number of homeless people who have a mental illness.