Opening minds in Canada: background and rationale.

OBJECTIVE

To summarize the background and rationale of the approach taken by the Mental Health Commission of Canada's Opening Minds (OM) Anti-Stigma Initiative.

METHOD: The approach taken by OM incorporates a grassroots, community development philosophy, has clearly defined target groups, uses contact-based education as the central organizing element across interventions, and has a strong evaluative component, so that best practices can be identified, replicated, and disseminated. Contact-based education occurs when people who have experienced a mental illness share their personal story of recovery and hope.

RESULTS

OM has acted as a catalyst to develop partnerships between community groups who are undertaking anti-stigma work and an interdisciplinary team of academic researchers in 5 universities who are evaluating the results of these programs.

CONCLUSIONS

Building partnerships with existing community programs and promoting systematic evaluation using standardized approaches and instruments have contributed to our understanding of best practices in the field of anti-stigma programming.