Social Policy in Ontario

We are CEOs of two leading health centres and decided it was time to align our specialties

Posted on June 26, 2025 in Health Delivery System

Source: TheStar.com — Authors: Kevin Smith and Sarah Downey

TheStar.com – Opinion
June 26, 2025.   By Kevin Smith and Sarah Downey Contributors

A partnership between CAMH and UHN aims to better understand how mental and physical health are connected; improve access to care; improve training and education for staff in dealing with aggression in hospital settings; augment research partnerships.

For decades, mental and physical health care in Canada have been separated — in policy, practice and perception. This divide has had real consequences. People living with mental illness often face significantly poorer physical health outcomes, contributing to a life expectancy that is, on average, 20 years shorter than the general population.

At the same time, people receiving treatment for physical conditions, such as cancer or heart disease, often face mental health challenges, including depression and anxiety, that can impact recovery, long-term outcomes and even survival.

This fragmented model fails to treat the whole person, leading to delayed diagnoses, repeat hospital visits and ultimately, worse health outcomes.

Two of Canada’s leading health centres are set to address this challenge by launching a collaboration that could serve as a model for future care across the country.

The partnership between The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and University Health Network (UHN) aims to better understand how mental and physical health are connected; improve access to care; improve training and education for staff in dealing with aggression in hospital settings; augment research partnerships.

Already, the partnership has promising results. For example, we are studying whether treating depression in older adults can help prevent dementia, and leading large-scale clinical trials on new therapies like brain stimulation and psychedelics for conditions such as chronic pain, addiction and depression.

New medicines are also on the horizon. GLP-1 agonists — originally developed for diabetes and obesity — are now being studied for their potential to reduce alcohol and opioid addiction by targeting shared pathways in the brain.

Detecting Brain Diseases Earlier

UHN doctors are also studying people with brain conditions linked to a protein called tau. CAMH scientists use advanced brain scans and cutting-edge technology to measure how much tau is in the brain — an important step toward identifying diseases like dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) sooner. CTE is a brain condition linked to repeated head injuries and can affect people even at a young age.

Unlocking How the Brain Works

In another partnership, a UHN neurosurgeon provided brain tissue from an epilepsy patient to CAMH researchers, enabling rare, real-time observation of how human neurons fire — offering deeper insight into brain function at the cellular level.

We are also jointly studying how the brain and cancer may be connected. This research could reveal how the brain influences cancer — and how illness in the body might impact brain health and mental well-being.

Making a Difference in Patient Care

Our partnership is already improving how care is delivered. Patients in UHN’s Emergency Department can now be directly connected to CAMH’s withdrawal management services, and we’ve established shared care pathways in areas like eating disorders, imaging and lab medicine.

To improve safety and support for staff and patients, UHN is also adopting CAMH’s trauma-informed de-escalation training in response to increased aggression in hospital settings since the pandemic.

By training clinicians and researchers across disciplines and aligning systems, we are laying the foundation for a better, more connected health system.

CAMH’s unparalleled expertise in mental health and UHN’s strengths in physical health and biomedical innovation will break down silos that have long limited holistic health care.

With two globally recognized institutions and one of the most diverse patient populations in the world, Toronto is uniquely positioned to lead this transformation, one that will serve as a model across Canada.

Dr. Kevin Smith is president and CEO of University Health Network (UHN) and Sarah Downey is president and CEO of The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/we-are-ceos-of-two-leading-health-centres-and-decided-it-was-time-to-align/article_bf912506-e4fe-43a6-a236-afb0612e8a8f.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a05&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=top_17177

Tags: Health, ideology, mental Health

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 26th, 2025 at 11:12 am and is filed under Health Delivery System. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.