Social Action and Advocacy
AMI-Quebec is committed to creating awareness and acting on issues of relevance to people with mental illness and their families, including access to health care, shelter, and other services, as well as ending stigma. AMI’s advocacy committee is made up of several members of our board of directors. It meets regularly to discuss current affairs related to mental health and family caregivers and is ready to respond quickly when a pressing issue arises.
Do you work at a business or an organization where you could display our pamphlets, bookmarks, or posters? Or maybe our Share & Care newsletter and/or calendar? Could you post them on a bulletin board or have them handy for clients to consult? Help us reach people in need! You never know who you might help…
Here are two examples of our advocacy efforts so far in 2026:
- In January, AMI-Quebec learned the psychiatry department of the McGill University Health Centre had decided to slash funding for its music therapy program, shutting down the Groupe MusiArt — an award-winning choir made up of MUHC psychiatric patients — the Women’s Music Circle, as well as individual and group music therapy programs, in response to budget constraints imposed on the hospital by the CAQ government through Santé Québec. Hand in hand with RACOR, the Réseau alternatif et communautaire des organismes en santè mentale, AMI launched a media awareness campaign to bring to public attention the importance of this program in fostering social connection and helping to keep vulnerable patients from relapsing. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the shortsightedness of these cuts, the MUHC did not reverse course. However, the hospital foundation has reached an agreement with Les Impatients, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting people with mental health challenges through artistic expression, to keep the Groupe MusiArt and other elements of the MUHC program going in the community. AMI continues to lobby for sustained support for such fundamental programs as music therapy within the publicly funded health care system.
- As part of our mission to advocate for families and caregivers of people living with mental health challenges, AMI-Quebec is undertaking a survey to find out more about the experience of psychiatric patients and their families in their interactions with the hospital system. The aim of this survey is to collaborate with health-care providers in hospital emergency departments and psychiatry units to improve the experience of patients in crisis and their families. Watch this spot for more information about how you can participate in the survey in the near future.
Update in 2025
AMI-Québec strives to be a culturally and physically safe place for Indigenous people. We commit to unlearning colonial attitudes and approaches, and we invite others to do the same. We aim to work alongside Indigenous organizations to become better informed and conscious of the needs and aspirations of all Indigenous people — in particular, those living in Montreal known as Tiohtià:ke by the Kanien’kehà:ka, the custodians of this unceded territory.
It’s time to act on care!
A national caregiving strategy for Canada
February 18, 2025–Canada is one of the few high-income countries without a national strategy to support caregivers. There are two kinds of caregivers, unpaid (like family and friends) and paid (like nurses, aides, and home care workers). One in four Canadians give care to a family member, friend, or neighbour, and half will be a caregiver to a loved one in their lifetime. This means there are millions of caregivers in Canada who are not getting the support they need.
Unpaid caregivers frequently carry a heavy burden, needing to provide care to a loved one while in school, working, raising children, or after retirement. They are often unprepared for the physical and psychological tasks they face as carers. Paid caregivers are subject to stress, overwork, and low wages.
The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE) has released a National Caregiving Strategy, made through consultations with caregiving, aging and disability experts. Oliver, our Young Carers Coordinator, has been a part of the process. CCCE’s Strategy is intended as a roadmap for the federal government to fulfill their 2024 promise to develop a national caregiving strategy. This strategy is aimed at people receiving care, their caregivers, and the professionals that support them.
What are the goals of the Strategy?
Improve supports, programs, and services for caregivers, so they can maintain their own well-being while fulfilling caregiving responsibilities.
Support caregivers in the workforce and education, so they can better manage the responsibilities of providing care and their work.
Support care recipients, so their care needs do not compromise the quality of their life.
Build a sustainable care provider workforce by valuing paid care providers with higher wages, better training, and clear pathways to permanent residency for migrant carers.
Show leadership and recognition, so Canadians know caregiving is a priority, and provinces, territories, businesses, and others can follow in the federal government’s footsteps.
On a practical level, the Strategy outlines suggestions to…
Make the Canada Caregiver Credit refundable, so that rather than lowering taxes paid to the government, it is a cash-in-hand tax return for caregivers.
Introduce public care insurance to give Canadians more choice and security in accessing care
services.
Adapt the Canada Pension Plan and student loans to encourage workforce and education participation without penalizing caregivers for lowering their hours or taking a leave of absence.
Model caregiver-friendly workplace policies and improve caregiver leaves and benefits.
Improve the Disability Tax Credit, Registered Disability Savings Plan, and Canada Disability Benefit, and make the application processes easier.
What does this mean for families who have a loved one living with a mental health condition?
Friends and family members supporting a loved one with a mental illness are even more overlooked and underrecognized than other caregivers. Tailored supports are needed for the particular difficulties that mental health challenges pose, especially in their overlap with legal issues, housing insecurity, and substance use, and especially with the mental health crisis we are currently facing.
What does it mean for young carers?
The amendments to student loans would mean that young people don’t have to choose between caring for a family member and furthering their education. A call is included for needs assessments for young carers, and for child welfare professionals to be properly equipped to assess their situations. Once all of the policies that promote stability and wellbeing for families with care obligations are in place, it should lower the need for youth to take on care responsibilities.
Where can I learn more? How can I get involved?
Visit canadiancaregiving.org to read the full strategy. You can help make caregiving a central pillar of Canada’s future.
2024
In late spring 2024, AMI-Quebec learned the psychiatry department at the McGill University Health Centre was ending funding and support for its Recovery Transition Program (RTP), a research initiative launched in 2016 which trained people with lived experience of addiction and mental illness to support other patients in their transition from clinical care back into the community. The program included a book club, workshops and the regular publication of a magazine devoted to art, stories, poems and journalism, written and curated by the patients themselves. Distressed by this decision to close an inexpensive program that helped peers and patients build and maintain strong, stable and healthy lives in their community, AMI-Quebec spread the word about RTP in the media and sought other ways to support the program’s survival. We put peer mentors at RTP in touch with Dunham House, a residential treatment centre specializing in addiction and concurrent mental health disorders. In 2025, RTP began a pilot project with Dunham House to mentor clients there, with the aim of expanding the program. Even though AMI’s main mandate is supporting families, the concept of peer mentoring is integral to the organization, which was built on families helping other families, recognizing the value of belonging to a community.
2023
Here are two recent examples of our advocacy efforts:
- In 2023, AMI representatives met with Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher to discuss ways AMI could help educate police officers about the people they encounter in the throes of a mental health crisis. As a result, in 2024, AMI representatives began meeting with cadets in training to share their lived experience as family caregivers.
- As Quebec and Canada move towards legalizing medical assistance in dying (MAiD) for people with intractable mental illness, AMI has played a role in raising awareness of this important change in end-of-life health care policy for Canadians. AMI has not taken a position on MAiD, but we are contributing to the discussion of all aspects of this change. AMI’s executive director, Ella Amir, shared her opinion in this piece published in the Montreal Gazette. In 2023, we devoted our annual lecture to the subject of MAiD and mental illness. Find out more here.
If you have an issue you would like to bring to the attention of AMI-Quebec’s advocacy committee, or if you would like to get involved in our advocacy work, contact us at info@amiquebec.org.
Young Carers
A young carer is someone under the age of 25 who takes care of a family member who has a chronic illness, disability, mental health or substance use issue and/or problems related to old age. They often don’t get the support they need to thrive in their own lives. Click here to learn about young carers, and what’s being done to help them.
Mental Health Commission of Canada
The Mental Health Commission of Canada was established in 2007 as an independent, non-for-profit organization funded by the government of Canada.
In accordance with the 10-year Health Canada funding agreement, the Commission has undertaken three major initiatives:
-The development of a Mental Health Strategy for Canada
-The creation of a national Knowledge exchange Centre
-The implementation of a national anti-stigma/anti discrimination initiative.
The Commission envisions a society that values and promotes mental health and helps people living with mental health problems and mental illness to lead meaningful and productive lives.
Its mission is to promote mental health in Canada and change the attitudes of Canadians towards mental health problems and mental illness, and to work with stakeholders to improve mental health services and support.
In 2017 the Commission’s mandate was extended for another two years; it is hoped that the mandate will be further extended for at least the balance of a second ten year period.
Led by the MHCC’s former Family Caregivers Advisory Committee, in 2013 the Commission released National Guidelines to support caregivers to someone with a mental illness. Click HERE for details.
Click HERE to visit the MHCC’s website.
Coalition for Access to Psychotherapy
CAP was created following the publication in December 2012 of the report on mental health services by the Health and Welfare Commissioner of Québec in which equitable access to psychotherapy services, as part of a treatment plan for mental health problems, was identified as an unmet need.
CAP is composed of a number of organizations like AMI-Quebec, as well as experts in the field of health services who believe that psychotherapy services should be available to individuals of all ages affected by a mental disorder. Therefore, CAP’s objective is to rally public and government support towards the implementation of psychotherapy services within the public healthcare system. Click HERE for more information about CAP.
Family Caregiving
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