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Later-life immigration and a lack of dominant language competency present many challenges to mental health for older adults. English as a Second Language (ESL) classes for seniors, often regarded as the sole domain of ESL teachers, offer mental health professionals opportunities for mental health promotion and education. This paper examines some of the mental health issues that emerged from stories written by older adults in an ESL for Seniors program. The program is presented as an example of best practices in an ESL for Seniors program because of its specific development to meet the needs of ESL older persons.

Multidisciplinary teamwork is increasingly considered the ideal way to provide mental health services. This is especially the case when working with children or families. However, there is little easy-to-use information available to help practicing professionals recognize and overcome barriers to working in multidisciplinary settings. There are even fewer resources intended for use across disiplines. This paper offers a practical approach to help mental health professionals identify barriers to teamwork and create solutions to those barriers.

This paper chronicles a comprehensive evaluation of 6 residential facilities for young offenders located within the region of Waterloo. Two kinds of research methodologies were employed in the investigation. One was primarily quantitative in nature, involving the completion of standardized scales for each of the youths who participated in the study (N = 129). The other was qualitative in nature, and involved interviews with a small sample of "graduates" from the centres (N = 9), and some of their parents and guardians (N = 4). Residential treatment was associated with significant improvements on the 2 measures developed specifically for the evaluation: a measure which focused on the specific goals which had been assigned to youths while in the program (Catalogue of Goals for Youth in Residence), and the global index of youth functioning which was empirically generated from residential case files (Inventory of Work Life and Social Skills). Qualitative interviews with program graduates and selected parents and guardians generally confirmed the positive evaluation of the impact of residential facilities on youths and served as the foundation for a series of recommendations for programmatic modifications and improvements.

Canada has no standards, procedural guidelines, or protocols for best practices in the care of youths in custody. This paper argues that clear, enforceable standards are important in defining a benchmark of acceptable practice. It argues that without standards, issues may arise which can create further difficulty for youths who are under the care of the state. It suggests that the current legal framework for standards is insufficient in its enforceability and its clarity. The new Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) provides the Canadian government with a timely and much-needed opportunity to establish standards of care for youths in custody. Indeed, the YCJA contains specific, comprehensive, and relevant provisions that can be seen as laying a firm foundation for standards of care.

In this paper, we explore 3 diverse populations: street kids, political prisoners, and caregivers of people with HIV/AIDS. From these explorations, we consider the concepts of empowerment, resilience, and community-building. By interweaving these 3 key concepts, we develop a cyclical wellness model which can be applied equally to individuals and communities. This model highlights the strengths of individuals and communities and will, we believe, provide a critical element of hope to societies within our increasingly global economy.

This paper summarizes the results of a multi-year evaluation of a parent support centre project. Qualitative data gathered both from a series of individual interviews with participants and from a series of focus-group interviews with both participants and workers are presented. The developmental process of the project is detailed. Positive outcomes with regard to individual changes in social support, parenting, and self-esteem are described. The accomplishments of the project's goals regarding participant satisfaction with activities and programs and the development of indigenous leadership are noted; however, the project was deemed less successful with regard to ongoing recruitment of participants. Implications for practice are discussed.

Empowering participation is relevant to many prevention programs. Yet many attempts at empowerment proceed without any clear understanding of the nature of empowerment or the practical requirements of an empowering process. This paper draws on the extensive program-development research for two Canadian prevention projects for disadvantaged children and families: the Parent Mutual Aid Organizations in Child Welfare Project and the Better Beginnings. Better Futures Prevention Project. The lessons learned in these projects about fostering empowering participation are summarized. The paper emphasizes the necessity to respect the demanding and complex requirements of successful empowering participation as well as the need to balance empowering participation with other priorities in prevention programs and projects.

This paper explores the challenges for social service agencies which offer cultural interpretation services in their bid to meet the needs of service seekers and recipients from linguistic minorities. The author argues that cultural interpretation is provided by institutions that have done little more than add a service for clients from cultural minorities, while leaving intact their service structures--structures that have historically viewed language and "cultural differences" as problems. This orientation will need to change if these services are to be accessible and equitable for Canadians from linguistic and ethnic minorities. While cultural interpreters remain critical to service delivery, they need to work within institutions where service providers and administrators understand language as a cultural, social, and political instrument through which individuals articulate their identities, realities, and understandings of their cultural contexts and service needs. This paper concludes by identifying some of the ethical dilemmas and questions that attend the needed institutional changes.

Ethical concerns have always placed limits on research, but the spirit of the times has led to an expansion of the territory covered by ethics. This new approach is found in the code of ethics presently in final revision by the three major granting agencies. This code will give unprecedented power to "collectivities" in the research process. Some see this as a long overdue corrective to hit-and-run research, while others see it as a threat to unfettered inquiry. This paper argues a different point: Involvement of collectivities is essential for ethical research relationships, but it ought not to limit the sorts of questions we study or publication of the answers we find. The difference will be illustrated by two examples in which aboriginal communities asserted their collective rights against researchers. The difference between the examples will lead to an examination of the debate between those who believe community work is "all politics," and those who try to underpin it with ethical principles. Finally, I argue that ethical practice requires a knowledge base created by valid research. We should support an improved relationship with host communities, but not let the political agendas of contending community groups constrain the questions we can ask about social problems or our assessment of measures designed to solve them.

This paper discusses issues related to the development of plans to improve the effectiveness of mental health services for urban First Nations people. The discussion focuses on emerging issues related to health care reform and regionalization. While it is impossible to make specific recommendations without reference to local conditions, developing an awareness of the general issues involved will help in the process of identifying the principles and approaches needed to frame local solutions.

We describe in this paper the everyday support mothers give to their adult sons or daughters suffering from psychotic disorders. We also describe the support these women receive from their social network regarding specific needs related to their children's disorders. Ninety-nine women, representing all socioeconomic groups, were interviewed. They were recruited through hospitals and self-help groups. The results of this study highlight the fact that participants give a substantial amount of support to their children, that they have considerable concern for their children's well-being, and that members of their family are their main source of emotional and practical support, and of advice. Mental health professionals give primarily informational support to respondents, in part through community-based agencies. The respondents who belong to self-help groups have significantly more needs related to their children's disorders and have more concern for their children's well-being than do the other respondents.

This paper pursues our exploration of the highly controversial issue concerning the compulsory treatment of allegedly mentally disordered persons within the community. We contrast, in their most basic arguments, the discourses which proponents and opponents of CCT characteristically construct for the specific purposes of convincing policy makers of the rightfulness of their respective positions and of ultimately influencing the legislative choices to be made. We identify key practical questions which have to be addressed in order to further our thinking on the issue and suggest that what today's mental health system unequivocally requires is real commitment on the part of government to make a greater political, organizational, and financial commitment to effective partnership models and to a balanced mental health system.