The Ontario COVID-19 Mental Health Network has ceased active operations as of July 1, 2020.
The Ontario COVID-19 Mental Health Network was initiated on Friday March 20, 2020 in response to the evolving crisis.
The goal was to offer fast friction-free mental health support for frontline healthcare workers, and address a terrible gap in our system around mental health.
As of April 28, 2020, over 900 licensed therapists volunteered through this initiative to provide short term pro bono one-to-one teletherapy for healthcare workers impacted by COVID-19 in their workplace.
From March 25, 2020 to July 1, 2020 over 1,000 healthcare workers requested support and received referrals to licensed volunteer therapists.
(This initiative did NOT provide healthcare services directly. It existed solely to facilitate connections between support seekers and licensed therapists.)
On the other side of the crisis, we will use this initiative as evidence that mental health is not adequately supported in this country, and that mental health IS health.
The initiative was spearheaded by licensed therapists:
Karen Dougherty, MA, RP
Fadi Abou-Rihan, PhD, RP
The volunteer coordinator was Allen Booth.
The initiative was featured in the media and included on many online resource lists.
WEB ARTICLES, NEWSPAPER ARTICLES, AND PODCASTS
The New Health Club Podcast
Huffington Post
Toronto Star
CBC NEWS
PsyCentral
Medscape
The Record
CTV News
RESOURCE LISTS