The Brant County Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association is a non-profit organization governed by a volunteer Board of Directors. CMHA contributes to the mental well-being of the community through support services for persons with a serious mental illness and educational initiatives for the general public.  We promote a positive approach to mental health through leadership, education, advocacy and support services. This is done in partnership with consumer/survivors of mental health services and their families.  We believe that a healthy community should provide opportunities for all citizens to  participate in any aspect of community life.

Serious Mental Illness

The first priority for mental health service follows the Ministry of Health's directive for mental health reform. There are three dimensions used to identify individuals with severe mental health problems - disability, duration and diagnosable disorders. The critical dimension is the extent of disability and serious risk of harm to oneself, related to diagnosable disorder.

Disability refers to difficulties interfering with and severely limiting an individual's capacity to function normally in one or more life activities, including living skills, such as maintaining a household, managing money, getting around the community and appropriate use of medication, and functioning in social, family and vocational or educational contexts.

Duration refers to an ongoing nature of the problems over time or the experience that the problems have persisted over time. This does not necessarily mean continuous. Episodes may be intermittent between which there are periods of full recovery. Diagnosable disorders of predominant concern are schizophrenia, mood disorders (depression and bipolar disorder), severe personality disorder, paranoia and other psychoses. Individuals may have other disorders in addition to serious mental health problems, such as a developmental disability or an alcohol or substance abuse problem.

Information

CMHA can provide information on a variety of topics related to mental health and mental illness, including a person's rights in the mental health system and what mental health services are available in Brant County and how to access them. We have a resource library of books, clippings and videos devoted to mental health issues which can be borrowed by the general public.