Get Your Workplace Involved in Defeat Depression!

Looking to boost team spirit and promote mental wellness in your workplace? Getting your colleagues involved in the Defeat Depression Campaign is a powerful way to make a difference - together.

Here’s how to get started:

• Start a Workplace Team: Create a team for your organization and invite coworkers to join you in walking, running, cycling - or moving any way that feels good. Whether you’re remote, hybrid, or on-site, everyone can participate at their own pace.
• Fundraise Together: Boost team spirit by setting a team goal and getting creative with fundraising - think bake sales, wellness challenges, or even a friendly department competition.
• Match Contributions: If your workplace offers donation matching, this is the perfect time to take advantage. Ask HR or leadership if they’ll support your efforts.
• Show Your Support: Share your workplace participation on social media and share using #DefeatDepression! Inspire others by showing that your team stands up for mental health.

By joining the movement, your workplace becomes part of a national effort to increase education, reduce stigma, and fund programs that support Canadians living with mental illness.

Let’s turn compassion into action - one workplace at a time.

🔗 Register your workplace team today!

Supporting Veterans and their Family Members

We are proud to offer two no-cost programs for Veterans and their Family Members:   

1. The Ontario Command Peer Support Program is funded by The Royal Canadian Legion Ontario Command and is for Ontario Veterans and Family Member participation. 

The two-day program is delivered by Zoom. Veterans and Veteran Family Members from MDSCs Peer and Trauma Support Services team facilitate these workshops along with a trauma-informed mental health professional.

Register Here.

2. The New Enhancing Connections Program is a three-year program available nationally for Veterans and Family Members.

View program brochures: English and français.

There are four offerings in this new program: 

• Applied Peer Support Workshop – 1 day
• Companionship Calls
• A new real talk, with real people webinar series called ‘First Step’
• A Veteran Volunteer HUB

Making Medications Accessible for Those in Need

MDSC remains committed to advocating for fair and equitable access to medications for all Canadians who need them as part of their treatment. As you read previously, in 2024, we hosted a national health-system roundtable, bringing together key stakeholders to discuss solutions.

As a next step from the roundtable, MDSC is launching a multi-stakeholder working group (WG) in 2025 to help drive action on these recommendations. The working group is currently being formed, with its first meeting planned for the spring. Participants include PWLE, clinicians, government representatives, reimbursement decision-makers, industry supporters, and other health advocacy organizations.

MIRA Update: Enhancing Mental Health Support Across Canada

We're excited to share the latest advancements in the development of MIRA, your Mental Health Intelligent Information Resource Assistant! Our ongoing commitment to providing a patient-centred, integrated, accessible, and efficient mental health navigation system for all Canadians is driving significant progress.

Here are some key updates you should know about:



• Enhanced Resource Recommendations: We've been actively refining MIRA's Resource Retrieval algorithms to better understand your specific needs and queries. This means MIRA is becoming even better at providing more relevant and specific mental health resources from our quality-controlled library.

• Expanding Reach and Inclusivity: MIRA is dedicated to serving diverse communities across Canada. We are actively working on expanding our resource database to cover more geographic locations and mental health topics comprehensively.

• Focus on Safety and Trust: Ensuring the safety and privacy of our users remains our top priority. MIRA does not draw information from the open internet; instead, it relies on our meticulously curated and expertly vetted MIRA Resource Library to provide accurate and trustworthy information.

• Improved User Experience: We're continuously working to make MIRA as user-friendly and accessible as possible. Upcoming enhancements include the development of a Large Language Model (LLM) version called MIRA 5.0. This newest version will have an enhanced conversational model, improved empathetic responses, improved resource retrieval algorithm. MIRA 5.0 will feature enhanced accessibility features, including enhanced speech-to-text and text-to-speech functionalities, and the option to converse in both English and French with more languages to come.

• Collaborative Growth: MIRA is a collaborative effort involving numerous universities, health system stakeholders, and lived experience organizations. We are actively engaging with numerous partners to expand MIRA's reach and resource database. This collaborative spirit ensures MIRA remains at the forefront of mental health navigation tools.