MCIS COVID-19 RESPONSE
MENTAL HEALTH RESOURCES
MCIS has collected the following mental health resources related to COVID-19. If you know anyone else who can use the information on this page, please feel free to share this page with them.
The workshop with Bianca Briciu, PhD introduces emotional intelligence as an empowering tool for understanding your needs and responding to them in a compassionate way. Focusing on the three areas of mind, relationships and work, the workshop offers you strategies that you can use in your daily life for stress management, empathy and well-being. Hosted by MCIS Language Solutions.
A webinar on breathing and stress management by Gabriela Bocanete, Holistic Health Coach, Conference Interpreter, and Interpreter Trainer. Hosted by MCIS Language Solutions, November 2020, this webinar will teach you to use your breath to re-balance, to quiet your mind and your body by freeing your breath. Some exercises and guided relaxation are also included.
OHIP-Covered Psychotherapists:
Medical Clinic for Person-Centred Psychotherapy
The Medical Clinic is a professional multicultural medical centre offering individual adult and group psychotherapy. Medical counseling is also available for adults. The Medical Clinic limits its work to psychotherapy and counseling. The medical staff of The Medical Clinic includes several fully qualified and experienced Physician Psychotherapists and Psychiatrists.
Medical Psychotherapy Association Canada (MDPAC)
MDPAC is a non-profit professional association of physicians. Medical psychotherapy is the deliberate establishment by a physician of a professional relationship with a patient, for the purpose of communication and collaboration to address potential or actual health-impacting problems. The relationship can foster and nurture the positive attitude and emotional strength necessary to take actions to prevent illness or to accelerate healing. The goal is the resumption of optimal functioning in everyday life, if possible, or at least minimization of discomfort and despair.
Toronto Psychoanalytic Society & Institute (TPS&I)
Toronto Psychoanalytic Society (TPS) is a not-for-profit association of professional psychoanalysts engaged in the development and advancement of clinical psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic thought in Toronto. TPS&I have a Referral Service, which can help you in determining whether psychoanalytic treatment may be of benefit to you, and whether psychotherapy or psychoanalysis would be most appropriate. They will also be able to provide you with a list of therapists or analysts who currently have openings in their practice.
Affordable Psychotherapy:
Affordable Counselling in Toronto
Affordable Counselling in Toronto was created as a response to a need for counselling for individuals, couples, and families who have no access to full-fee counselling due to financial constraints. They offer marriage counselling, individual counselling, and life transition coaching. They help people who are dealing with anxiety, depressions, anger, relationship and related mental health issues.
Hard Feelings is an innovative, welcoming community of professional counsellors who provide low-cost services and support. Their mission is to reduce barriers and increase access to mental health supports and resources through an innovative community of practice.
Centre for Training in Psychotherapy (CTP)
CTP has a referral service for members of the public who require psychotherapy at a reduced fee. Therapists in Training, who are near completion of their CTP training, are able to offer psychotherapy at a reduced fee. CTP faculty members supervise casework on a regular basis.
People come to Gestalt therapy seeking support in times of challenge and transition, a desire to explore unfinished business, find creative solutions in relationships, and to decrease levels of fear and anxiety. Supervised student therapists in Years Four and Five of the training program offer a high level of empathic and interactive therapy at an affordable price of $40.00 a session. Confidentiality is assured.
The OISE Psychology Clinic provides comprehensive and confidential assessment and intervention services to children and adolescents, and assessment and counselling services to adults. Graduate students doing their clinical training under the supervision of faculty and staff psychologists typically provide these services. (While our doors are closed for in-person psychological services during COVID-19, the OISE Psychology Clinic has transitioned from providing in-person psychotherapy to on-line psychotherapy for clients who wish to receive service.)
The Toronto Institute for Relationship Psychotherapy:
They are a recognized education and training program with the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO). They offer low-cost therapy through student therapists for $25 per session until the student becomes a senior student, and relationship therapy with senior students and graduates of the Institute is between $40 – $80 for both individuals and couples therapy.
Open Path Psychotherapy Collective
Open Path Psychotherapy Collective is a non-profit nationwide network of mental health professionals dedicated to providing online mental health care – at a steeply reduced rate – to individuals, couples, children, and families in need. Their therapists provide affordable online psychotherapy sessions for $30 – $60 for individuals and $30-$80 for couples and family sessions.
Agencies:
Wellness Together Canada: Mental Health and Substance Use Support
Get connected to mental health and substance use support, resources, and counselling with a mental health professional. Wellness Together Canada was funded by the Government of Canada in response to the unprecedented rise in mental distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. People are being challenged like never before due to isolation, physical health concerns, substance use concerns, financial and employment uncertainty, and the emotional dialogue around racial equality. For immediate Crisis Support Text WELLNESS to 741741.
Kids Help Phone 1-800-668-6868
Kids Help Phone is a Canadian charitable organization that provides 24/7 free confidential processional online telephone counselling and volunteer-led, text-based support in English and French to youth across Canada. They have always focused on youth, and recognizing the complexity of issues, they face, and ensuring counsellors are ready to address the continuum of emotional and mental health needs from crises to the everyday concerns of growing up.
Distress Centre 416-408-4357
Provides 24-hour support, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to individuals in their community at risk and their most vulnerable. Canada’s oldest volunteer delivered crisis, emotional support and suicide prevention + intervention + postvention service agency. Their crisis and emotional distress services are available via hotline, online chat, and text. They also offer face-to-face individual, as well as group support and counselling to those who have lost a loved one to suicide or homicide and are navigating the aftermath.
Gerstein Crisis Centre 416-929-5200
Provides community based crisis support that reflects and recognizes the needs and wishes of people experiencing a mental health crisis. They also provide wellness and recovery activities, and training and education.
Assaulted Women’s Helpline 416-863-0511
The Assaulted Women’s Helpline has served as a free, anonymous and confidential 24-hour telephone and Teletype crisis telephone line to all women in the province of Ontario who have experienced any form of abuse. They provide crisis counselling, safety planning, emotional support, information and referrals accessible 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They work in tandem with community partners and sister agencies towards bridging gaps in service and identifying emerging issues or trends relevant to the women. Deaf, blind, and hard of hearing services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Toronto Rape Crisis Centre: 416-597-8808
The Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape (TRCC/MWAR) provides a free 24 hours a day, 7 days a week crisis line service that is private and confidential. TRCC/MWAR is a non-profit feminist organization committed to fighting violence against women and children. As a Rape Crisis Centre, they work both independently and together with other community organizations to provide inclusive support services for all survivors of sexual violence, sexual harassment, human trafficking and other forms of gender-based violence.
Victim Services Toronto: 416-808-7066
Victim Services Toronto provides short-term crisis response, intervention and prevention services, which are responsive to the needs of individuals, families and communities in the immediate aftermath of crime and sudden tragedy (typically within 72 hours). Their vision is to help victims of crime and sudden tragedies restore and enhance their quality of life while working to prevent victimization in the diverse communities we serve.
Ontario Addiction, Mental Health & Problem Gambling Services: 1-866-531-2600
ConnexOntario provides free and confidential health services information for people experiencing problems with alcohol and drugs, mental illness or gambling. Their system navigation and information service line is live-answer 24/7, confidential, and free.
Free Online Courses:
Online Course: Managing mental health during COVID-19 for frontline workers
Managing mental health during COVID-19 for frontline workers is a brief, self-directed, online training that provides an overview of mental health concerns that may be experienced during a pandemic, both by therapists and the people they support. The training uses case scenarios, activities, videos, and reflective journals to equip frontline workers with tools and approaches to address mental health concerns in the context of a pandemic.
Supports a wide range of mental health and wellbeing issues – from anxiety, depression, isolation and stress, to relationship problems and lifestyle challenges. An online community where members can support each other, access 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Offers self-assessments, recommends resources, creative tools to help express how you’re feeling and a wide range of self-guided courses to do at your own pace.
Mental Health and Resilience During COVID-19 (Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute webinar)
The COVID-19 pandemic is reshaping our lives in a way that has great potential to affect our mental health. Key changes include heightened anxiety in our local community and the world; social and physical disconnection from others; and the ever-present threat of an unfolding unknown. These factors can create new mental concerns, or exacerbate existing ones, such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and our patterns of coping. This webinar will explore key factors for understanding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Viewers will receive concrete guidance for building resilience and staying emotionally and mentally healthy during this stressful time, including insights for supporting children.
Resilience Skills in a Time of Uncertainty
We are all facing different challenges as we confront the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn how to incorporate resilience interventions into your personal and professional life with Dr. Karen Revich. In this course, individuals are exposed to the foundational research in resilience, including protective factors such as mental agility and optimism. Various cognitive strategies are explored including strategies to manage anxiety and increase positive emotions. Throughout this course, individuals will also hear examples of individuals using resilience skills in their personal and professional lives.
Positive Psychiatry and Mental Health
In today’s world, there is a growing interest in understanding and enhancing positive mental health and wellbeing; particularly from developments in the fields of positive psychology and mental health promotion. Positive Psychiatry is a new term (Jeste et al 2016) that describes a dual approach to mental health, where we build strengths, supports, and healthy lifestyles as well as treating illness and distress. In this course, we will explore different aspects of good mental health as well as provide an overview of the major kinds of mental disorders, their causes, treatments, and how to seek help and support.
Introduction to Self-Determination Theory: An Approach to Motivation, Development, and Wellness
Self-determination theory (SDT) is an empirically based theory of motivation and psychological development that is especially focused on the basic psychological needs that promote high-quality motivation and wellness, and how they are supported in social contexts. In this course, Professor Richard Ryan, co-founder of the theory, will provide an overview of SDT with special emphasis on how autonomy, competence, and relatedness supports and facilitates behavioral persistence, quality of relationships, and healthy developmental processes, among other topics.
Mind Control: Managing Your Mental Health During COVID-19
The intent of this course is to give you a deeper understanding of the anxiety reaction as it relates to various aspects of our current life, ranging from our consumption of news to the way we talk to our children about this. The course will also give you clear strategies for managing and, in fact, turning off the anxiety response at least for short periods. The sincere hope is that you will leave this course with a better understanding of how your brain reacts to crises, along with some powerful tools for managing it before it manages you.
In this course, you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build habits that are more productive. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life.
Mental Health Programs/Webinars:
BounceBack is a free, guided self-help program that is effective in helping people aged 15 and up who are experiencing mild-to-moderate anxiety or depression, or may be feeling low, stressed, worried, irritable or angry. Participants receive telephone coaching, skill-building workbooks and online videos to help them overcome these symptoms and gain new skills to regain positive mental health. To receive either telephone-coaching support, their primary care provider (family doctor, nurse practitioner) or psychiatrist must refer clients, or they may self-refer as long as they are connected with a primary care provider. BounceBack is a life-skills program that participants work with to develop coping techniques so they can overcome challenges now or in the future. Typically, participants take three to six months to complete the program.
Mental Health Words (MHW) is a national social enterprise of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), with the head office at CMHA Ontario Division. We provide workplace mental health training to organizations worldwide. In this time of uncertainty and stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Mental Health Works is providing a free webinar series to help employees and employers address the impact these circumstances may have on our work and well-being.
Living Life to The Full Webinar Series Discusses Mental Health Impacts of COVID-19
Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario Division’s Living Life to the Full team, and Baycrest Rotman Research Institute clinician-scientist Dr. Nasreen Khatri have created a webinar series to discuss the mental health impact of COVID-19. Webinars feature topics related to loneliness, young adult mental health, older adult advocacy, and the mental health fallout of the pandemic. Webinar descriptions and audio recordings are included within the website.
Resource Hubs:
Mental Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic
CAMH has cultivated resources to help support people who are struggles due to the effects of the pandemic. These resources include help for health care workers, and people who suffer through loss, grief, stress, and anxiety. Individuals have also shared their lived experience of coping with COVID-19. They have also included mental health advice tailored to those experiencing a wide range of feelings due to the effects of isolation as well as how to combat the rise in discrimination that has been sparked by the pandemic.
COVID-19 Youth Mental Health Resource Hub
Jack.org, School Mental Health Ontario and Kids Help Phone have partnered to bring you all the information needed in one easy-to-access hub so that youth mental health remains top of mind, and our communities are able to easily access the education, tools, support and reliable information they need.
Discussion Forums:
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Discussion Forum
This is a discussion forum where individuals can offer support, encouragement, and share their experiences with managing your stress and anxiety related to the COVID-19 virus. Individuals can also get tips and suggestions for how best to cope in this difficult time. Moderators will be available during business hours to provide general information and encourage the use of available resources. This discussion forum will be open: Weekdays 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (EST). Outside of these hours, individuals can still view the discussions, but you will not be able to post or respond to a thread.