Knowledge to help you move forward. Organizations, research and documents our families rely on.

Organizations

• Ontario Psychiatric Association (OPA) — The provincial voice of Ontario’s psychiatrists, and the authors of the Mental Health Law Reform Proposals we support.
• FASMI — Family Alliance on Severe Mental Illness — Ontario families and professionals advocating for the same reforms we are.
• Eli’s Place — Canada’s first farm-based residential treatment centre for young adults (18–35) with serious mental illness, now with its permanent home on a farm north of Guelph.
• Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) — the world’s largest private funder of mental-health research grants. Their scientists work on schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other serious mental illnesses — the research that leads to better treatments. Based in the U.S.; the science helps families everywhere. We follow their work and share the hopeful findings with our group.
• OFCAN — Ontario Family Caregivers’ Advisory Network — Family caregivers across Ontario pushing for a better system.
• Home on the Hill Supportive Housing — A non-profit organization in Richmond Hill providing stable housing, life skills training, and community programs for individuals with serious mental illnesses and their families.
• EPI Canada — Early Psychosis Intervention — the national organization for early psychosis care in Canada, connecting families and clinicians to early-intervention programs, research, and training. Their whole focus is catching psychosis early and treating it early — the window that makes the biggest difference for recovery.
• EPION — Early Psychosis Intervention Ontario Network — Ontario’s network of early psychosis intervention programs. Their site helps families find their local program for young people (about 14–35) in the early stages of psychosis — because catching it early and treating it early is the window that makes the biggest difference for recovery.
• MICA (Mental Illness Caregivers Association of Canada) — supports caregivers of people living with mental illness and/or substance use disorder. Their “What Happens When I Am Gone” work helps aging caregivers plan housing and supports for their loved ones — the question so many of our families lie awake asking.

Understanding the law

• Ontario’s Mental Health Act — Read the legislation itself at Ontario.ca.
• Our guide to the current legislation — How involuntary admission, Forms 1–4, patient rights, and community treatment orders work today, in plain language.

Key documents

• “The Patient Declined” (Lancet Psychiatry, 2026) — A psychiatrist’s first-person account of anosognosia: why ‘the patient declined’ can mean the illness refused, not the person.
• “Anosognosia in Schizophrenia: Hidden in Plain Sight” — The clinical review explaining why lack of insight is a brain-based feature of schizophrenia, not stubbornness. (Free to read.)
• “Aid to Capacity Evaluation (ACE)” — The structured tool clinicians use to assess decision-making capacity — helpful for families to see what ‘capacity’ actually measures.
• “Canadian mental health laws: a review of involuntary admission and treatment pending appeal” (Petit et al., 2025) — Compares every province and territory; shows most already allow intervention before someone becomes dangerous. (Free to read.)

Cannabis and psychosis

Families keep running into this, and so do we: today’s high-potency cannabis can trigger psychosis and worsen schizophrenia, especially in young people. This research is why we take it seriously.

• “The contribution of cannabis use to variation in the incidence of psychotic disorder across Europe” (Di Forti et al., The Lancet Psychiatry, 2019) — A major multi-country study: daily use, especially of high-potency cannabis, significantly increases the risk of a first psychotic episode.
• Johnny’s Ambassadors — A parent-founded organization educating families about cannabis and teen mental health, including cannabis-induced psychosis. Their book CIP & ME collects first-hand stories of people who lived through it and recovered.

In crisis

If you or someone you love is thinking about suicide, call or text 9-8-8 — Canada’s Suicide Crisis Helpline. It’s free, confidential, bilingual, and answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year, by trained responders. If someone is in immediate danger, call 9-1-1.

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