Fighting Stigma in Canada: Opening Minds Anti-Stigma Initiative

Mental illnesses continue to gain awareness as a global health problem. Within this international context, Canada has also paid closer attention to mental illnesses and their related stigma. The Mental Health Commission of Canada was formed in 2007 as a federal government initiative to be a catalyst for improving the mental health system. Since then, the Commission has examined the many ways in which people living with mental illnesses are viewed in society and devised a series of initiatives to enhance and improve Canada’s treatment of people who live with mental illnesses. One initiative is the Opening Minds initiative, whose mandate is to change Canadians’ attitudes and behaviors toward people living with mental illnesses to ensure they are treated fairly, as full citizens with equal opportunities to contribute to society (see Stuart et al. 2014a, b).