We have and continue to support many initiatives that drive collaboration and knowledge exchange between and among funders, researchers, policy makers, and community service providers. These initiatives complement the projects that are aimed at transforming mental health service delivery and will help to further drive innovation and quality improvement for the sector.
The mental health sector has historically been siloed and underdeveloped relative to other major areas in health. In particular, there has been fragmentation, lack of coordination, limited infrastructure for collaboration, and evidence-based interventions are rarely scaled or adopted across jurisdictions. Furthermore, research and knowledge exchange are limited and lacking in organization both within countries such as Canada and internationally.
We believe that the mental health sector would benefit from being better organized both within individual countries and on a global basis. The ultimate goal is to accelerate the development and transfer of new knowledge, speed up the transformation of services, and thereby deliver better patient outcomes.
The Foundation’s strategy is to help organize and support a number of collaborative initiatives focused on bringing funders and other stakeholders together to share knowledge and align the vision of the mental health sector.
Over the years, the Foundation has developed a number of projects and initiatives that aim to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange in the mental health sector. These projects (both ongoing and completed) include:
- The Mental Health and Wellness Affinity Group (MHWAG)
- Uniting Global Mental Health Research Funders
- Coalition for Access to Psychotherapy (CAP)
- Graham Boeckh Chair in Schizophrenia Research
- Transnational Forum on Integrated Community Care (TransForm)