Mental Health Archives

An Interview with Adrienne Jugley

by Rob Kirsic | December 2024

Adrienne recently served as the Commissioner of Community Services where she was committed to serving the most vulnerable people in the Niagara community from infant to senior. In this role, Adrienne envisioned Niagara Region as a strong community where individuals are supported to maximize their potential, achieve their goals, and enhance their quality of life and social well-being.

She is also one of the recipients of the 2024 OMSSA Champion of Human Services Award. OMSSA sat down with Adrienne Jugley for an interview to discuss her work and career and thoughts on human services in Ontario.

Highlights from OMSSA’s 2023 Policy Conference

by Tod Duncan, Nalisha Sankreacha | February 2024

OMSSA’s 2023 Policy Conference successfully took place on November 30 and December 1. This year’s conference, once again, contained a mix of sessions. There were several plenary sessions designed to be of interest to all OMSSA Members, as well as a comprehensive slate of sector-specific break-out sessions.

We’ve learned that there continue to be profound challenges to the social services sector. But knowing the energy and enthusiasm through which OMSSA Members approach their work, it’s assured that throughout 2024 we will hear stories of amazing successes that have been achieved.

OMSSA Report on the 2023 Ontario Budget

by Darryl Wolk | March 2023

On March 23rd, Ontario’s Minister of Finance, Peter Bethlenfalvy, delivered the 2023 Ontario Budget. The budget comes at a time when Ontario is facing a housing crisis, homelessness crisis, pandemic recovery, inflation, and global economic uncertainty. Learn more about some of the highlights relevant to OMSSA Members and the municipal human services sector.

Coming Together For The First Time Since 2019

by Nalisha Sankreacha, Tod Duncan | February 2023

The 2022 Policy Conference was the first in-person event for OMSSA in the last three years. OMSSA members and staff were eager to meet with their colleagues resulting in a great turnout at the event with members joining from all around the province. The Conference consisted of several plenary and concurrent sessions focusing on relevant human services policy topics.

This Is Not OK

by Jocelyn Siciliano | February 2023

Homelessness can be a result of a complex mix of social services, health, and economic difficulties. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic changed how we work, our way of education and how we interact with others. Due to reduced in-person social services, widespread isolation, and inflationary housing and food costs, homelessness is gaining recognition as a serious problem. With agencies and drop-in centres now open people can have access to in-person support yet the number of people wandering our streets continues to shock and disappoint the public.

Serving The Community Through OMST

by Kristine Haines-Chiarello | February 2023

OMSSA is featuring several of our 2022 Local Municipal Champion award recipients and their work in the Knowledge Exchange Blog. Please read the entry from the City of Ottawa. Social Service Staff members took steps to address concerns of mental health with an increased digital divide and aggravating pre-existing inequities as the effects began to impact individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those concerns were addressed by challenging the status quo and removing barriers to providing essential human services when people were most in need. In 2021, the Outreach and Mobile Services Team (OMST) began to offer outreach services to individuals and families.

We Need to Talk: Why There Can Be No “Future Forward” Until We’ve Done the Work

by Françoise Mathieu | November 2022

This post is being re-published with permission from Tend Academy. This post was originally written by Françoise Mathieu in August 2022. Françoise was most recently a keynote speaker at OMSSA’s 2022 Forum where she discussed many of the topics and themes discussed in this blog post. Photo credit: TEND Academy

An Interview with Dr. Kwame McKenzie

by Rob Kirsic | December 2021

Dr. Kwame McKenzie is the CEO of the Wellesley Institute and is an international expert on the social causes of mental illness, suicide, and the development of effective, equitable health systems. He is also the recipient of the 2021 OMSSA Champion of Human Services Award. OMSSA sat down with Dr. McKenzie for an interview to discuss the work of the Wellesley Institute and his insights and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic.