Prime Minister Names Board for Mental Health Commission

OTTAWA (CP) – Prime Minister Stephen Harper has named retired Liberal Senator Michael Kirby as chairman of the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

He also named 17 people to the commission board in an announcement Friday to an international conference on mental health issues.

The creation of the commission was announced earlier and the last federal budget set aside $55 million to finance it.

The board includes six current and former senior government bureaucrats – federal, provincial and territorial.

The other members include three people living with mental illness, two aboriginals and representatives of care-giving agencies, professional support groups and community groups.

The prime minister noted the government received almost 500 applications before naming the commission appointees.

“They represent the best minds in Canada’s mental health field today,” Harper told the gathering.

“In addition to their extensive professional qualifications, many have first-hand, personal experience of mental illness within their families. As a result, they have profound empathy for the mentally ill and unique insight into how we can respond to this national challenge.”

The goals of the commission, said Harper, are two-fold.

“Together they will lead a national campaign to erase the stigma attached to mental illness. They will also serve as a national clearing house for information on the best medical practices for dealing with it.”

Kirby chaired a Senate committee that prepared a ground-breaking report in May 2006 entitled “Out of the Shadows at Last: Transforming Mental Health, Mental Illness and Addiction Services in Canada.”

He reiterated that central theme Thursday in addressing the conference.

“Above all, the commission must ensure that mental health issues are never again allowed to retreat back into the shadows,” said Kirby.

Later, outside the conference hall, Kirby said the immediate issue for mental health providers is not so much government funding as it is the organization of services that are often hived off into separate silos.

“It’s just such a huge, complex issue that it can’t be fixed overnight,” Kirby told reporters.