About
Founded in 1918, Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is the most established, most extensive community mental health organization in Canada. CMHA provides advocacy, programs and resources that help to prevent mental health problems and illnesses, support recovery and resilience, and enable all Canadians to flourish and thrive. With its nationwide scope and community roots, CMHA works towards a stronger community mental health system in which people have access to the help they need, when they need it.
We envision a Canada where mental health is a universal human right.
And not only where people have the right to timely mental health treatment or access, but also to the secure jobs, safe places to live and good relationships that make good mental health possible for every person in Canada.
At 104 years old, CMHA is one of the longest-serving not-for-profit organizations in the country, and the only national mental health organization whose work spans the full scope of issues related to mental health, mental illness, problematic substance use and addiction. With a community presence in over 330 locations across every province and one territory, CMHA provides advocacy, resources, programs and services to help Canadians of all ages promote, protect and support their mental health so we can all thrive in meaningful, beautiful lives.
Our Impact
CMHA identifies and responds to Canada’s most pressing mental health priorities. At the national level, we push for nationwide system and social change. At the community level, more than a million people in Canada rely on CMHA’s extensive grassroots presence for mental health programs and services every year.
At CMHA we are working to keep people mentally healthy in the first place. To act before mental illness, so that it doesn’t take hold. Our work is about keeping people out of crisis. It is about keeping people out of hospitals, both before mental illness can occur, and after a crisis has passed.
CMHA works in three key areas:
Systems Change: CMHA advocates for a mental health care system that takes care of everyone, no matter who, no matter where. No matter what.
Social Change: CMHA work to influence people’s behaviour in key settings, such as schools, workplaces and communities, to create a climate of acceptance and to foster social change.
Strengthening Service Delivery: Nationwide, CMHA offers a variety of programs, services and supports. We mobilize and marshal resources, partners and people to scale and strengthen this important work on the ground across Canada.
