GUELPH – On May 31, Homewood Health Centre held its first annual mental health symposium at the Delta Hotel and Conference Centre in Guelph.
The event was moderated by Carlos Lalonde, president and chief of staff at Homewood Health Centre, and executive vice president, medical services, Homewood Health Inc.
The event welcomed 132 health care professionals from the local community and virtually from across Ontario and Canada, including physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, physicians assistants, therapists and counsellors attending.
The event featured clinical presentations by six leading experts from the Homewood Health Centre. This combined peer-reviewed scientific literature and research with clinical outcomes across the centre’s treatment programs.
The topics and learning objectives were chosen based on a recent survey conducted with the physician community. They included: addiction medicine for primary care; self-compassion for health care professionals; interventional psychiatry; identification and treatment of eating disorders; and emerging issues in geriatric mental health.
“This event is part of our ongoing effort to enhance community education and outreach programming across Guelph and surrounding communities,” Lalonde said.
He added that with an increased demand for community mental health resources, Homewood Health Centre wants to support the health care providers through education and peer networking.
Lalonde said Homewood officials were “struck” by the interest and attendance from health care providers across Canada to learn about the identification and treatment of mental health disorders.
He said this reflects the need for greater national collaboration between primary care and mental health experts to provide high-quality education and training.
“Together, we look forward to creating more dialogue around mental health disorders by sharing information openly, while continually learning about their educational needs and interests,” he stated.
