In most professions in life, average implies not too bad. One isn’t getting the best, but hopefully one isn’t getting badly treated. The average car mechanic will be perfectly good at doing an oil change or general repairs. The average family doctor will be able to handle most common ailments, like high blood pressure, sore […]
Why Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a Fraud
A recent study (Johnsen, Tom J.; Friborg, Oddgei 2015) titled The Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as an Anti-Depressive Treatment is Falling: A Meta-Analysis indicating that over the years studies on CBT for depression are showing progressively poorer results should come as no surprise to anyone who actively works with real people. The findings should […]
Sexual Assault on Campus
There has been considerable publicity about sexual assault on campus over the past while. Recently the CBC publicized a survey done in Canadian universities to try to determine the extent of the problem. Though the survey produced limited useful information due to the varying ways universities collect and report data, it does bring some issues […]
Report to Kirby Commision 2005
Report for the Senate Committee Study on Mental Health Norman Hoffman, M.D., F.R.C.P.C. Over the past twenty years, university mental health and counselling across North America have experienced a dramatic rise in the need for services. At McGill University, the number of students we treat has doubled every four years. The severity of mental health […]
The Need to Stigmatize (the overuse of the term) Mental Illness
There is a stain spreading across North America that is causing untold hardship to people with emotional distress. It is clear from the growing number of people seeking mental health services that many people in our society are suffering due to a variety of social conditions including family disruption, economic hardship, and alterations in […]
The Problem With Research Models of Psychotherapy
There has been extensive promotion of research models of psychotherapy, largely due to the demand from certain industries for evidence based practice. The problem with psychotherapy research is not necessarily in the research itself but in the superficial application of whatever evidence one can glean from the research. There is now a growing concern […]
The Epidemic of Self-Harm
There has been a growing awareness and concern about young people who self-harm or injure over the past ten years. While self-injury used to be considered to be pathognomonic of Borderline Personality Disorder, it is so common these days that it is more useful to think of it as way individuals have come to deal […]
Issues in Student Mental Health
There as been great concern over the past ten years about the growing need for student mental health support in universities. The underlying reasons for the increase in distress in university students has not been well elucidated. Some people like to attribute the increased need to an increased number of students with emotional difficulties getting […]
McGill University is wasting Bell $500,000 donation
The announcement that Bell is donating $500,000 to McGill for use in Mental Health was met with excitement. The use of the funds to develop online screening should be met with confusion. The value of online screening has to be suspect. Most screening tools are highly inaccurate. Part of the problem is that screening […]
The Use and Misuse of Diagnosis in Student Mental Health
There have been significant changes over the past twenty years in the manner in which our society responds to labeling in the mental health field. Using psychiatric diagnoses to “label” individuals used to be thought of as “bad”. Today, it seems that everyone, including health professionals, students, parents and administrators, is pushing for individuals […]