Overview

It's Not About Us is a guide to improving the client experience with the mental health and addiction system across Canada. It examines the traditional and current pathology-oriented medical model within which all of our services are built. It looks at the ways in which that model prevents the transformation we need if we want to really change our system. This book presents a new way to think about what it means to be client-centered, not only at an individual level, but also at the level of system design and operation. It is based on compelling principles and a real success story - a program in Nova Scotia that transformed its way of providing service, according to a new way of defining and understanding what it means to be client-centered. This program significantly improved quickness and ease of access for clients, and also enhanced its capacity to prevent addictions and mental illness. In Canada, many have tried to improve services. They have instinctively called for more money and more therapists and psychiatrists, or have focused on improving clinical skills of staff. Unfortunately, that simply perpetuates more of the same problematic approach, one that has repeatedly failed to address the concerns of the clients and the public. What has not yet happened is the one fundamental thing that is required. We need to change the perspective used to design all components of the system. We need to replace our traditional model that is designed from an expert and management-focused viewpoint, and start to look at the system the way clients and the public see and experience it. If you or a loved one have been affected by addiction and mental health issues, and have tried to or wanted to advocate for change in the system, this book will help you know how to do that. If you work in the mental health and addiction system in Canada, this book will help guide you through a more fundamental change than we have seen in many decades. It is time for change ... and this is a call to action.

Full Product Details

9780993817335

Table of Contents

Reviews

It's Not About Us is a breath of fresh-air that gives hope to this mental health advocate and consumer. If the system would fully adopt some of the ideas discussed in this book, lives will not only be transformed but saved. A must-read for anyone tired of talk but no real change. Sara Ramsay, mental health system consumer and advocate As a pharmacist, I see and hear the frustrations of mental health and addictions clients every day. The unique and innovative approach in this book could serve as a template, not only for this field, but for improving the delivery of many areas of health care in Canada. Jack Davies, Pharmacist In my 32-year career as a nurse, I have not seen any approach that is as simple, innovative, and fundamentally important to the mental health and addiction field, as the ideas presented in It's Not About Us. This is a must-read for all nurses. Marguerite MacDonald, Retired Nurse Clinicians should not be afraid to adopt this model of service delivery as it will enhance not only their clients' experience of the service, but enable them to deliver client-centered treatment in the manner for which they were trained. . Dr. Andrew Ashley-Smith, Psychiatrist This piece of work should be a blueprint guide for health change leaders in Canada Kevin Fraser, RSW, RCC, manager - mental health and addictions.

It's Not About Us is a breath of fresh-air that gives hope to this mental health advocate and consumer. If the system would fully adopt some of the ideas discussed in this book, lives will not only be transformed but saved. A must-read for anyone tired of talk but no real change. Sara Ramsay, mental health system consumer and advocate As a pharmacist, I see and hear the frustrations of mental health and addictions clients every day. The unique and innovative approach in this book could serve as a template, not only for this field, but for improving the delivery of many areas of health care in Canada. Jack Davies, Pharmacist In my 32-year career as a nurse, I have not seen any approach that is as simple, innovative, and fundamentally important to the mental health and addiction field, as the ideas presented in It's Not About Us. This is a must-read for all nurses. Marguerite MacDonald, Retired Nurse Clinicians should not be afraid to adopt this model of service delivery as it will enhance not only their clients' experience of the service, but enable them to deliver client-centered treatment in the manner for which they were trained.. Dr. Andrew Ashley-Smith, Psychiatrist This piece of work should be a blueprint guide for health change leaders in Canada Kevin Fraser, RSW, RCC, manager - mental health and addictions.

Author Information

Todd Leader is a Registered Social Worker and a Registered Community Psychologist with a decades-long career as a multiple-award-winning transformational leader in healthcare. He is also a multiple-award-winning member of the Faculty of Science (Psychology) at Saint Mary's University (since 1990). Todd has been a member of the Nova Scotia Ministerial Advisory Panel on Innovation in Mental Health and Addictions, President of the Public Health Association of Nova Scotia, President of the Association of Psychologists of Nova Scotia, a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Public Health Association, and is currently Vice President of the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers. Todd's 2016 book ""It's Not About Us; The Secret to Transforming the Mental Health and Addiction System in Canada"" continues to influence leadership and client-centered system change across Canada.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available