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About CMHA NS
Our Vision: A Canada where mental health is a universal human right.
Our Mission: We empower and support the voices of all those seeking assistance on their mental health journey.
As the leader and champion for mental health in Nova Scotia, the Canadian Mental Health Association Nova Scotia Division promotes the mental health of all and support the resilience, recovery, and overall well being among individuals facing mental health issues throughout the province.
Together with our branches in Halifax, Colchester East-Hants and Southwest Nova, we advocate for policy change that addresses housing, employment, job insecurity, working life conditions, social inclusion, and non-discrimination. The majority of these programs are free to access and available to everyone living in Nova Scotia.
We are also part of a federation, which means we are a collective of organizations across the country, bound together by a brand and mission.
Nova Scotians can rely on CMHA-NS for:
- Advocacy: Working with our partners, we push for new systems, policies, and practices that increase community capacity and foster better mental health and well-being for all Nova Scotians and address the social determinants of health.
- Education: We promote greater understanding of mental health issues through inclusive, evidence-based mental health programming and education across the province. We are committed to ensuring this programming is accessible and meets the evolving mental health needs of Nova Scotians.
- Resource Navigation: We connect all people in Nova Scotia with safe, inclusive, culturally relevant, accessible mental health programs, services, and support. We are committed to expanding our network and building strong connections with our community partners across the province to ensure we meet these needs.
Our Impact:
- Programming: Programming and education across the province.
- Systems Change: At the division level, we advocate for mental health system change, educate, and influence societal beliefs and behaviours to create a climate of understanding and acceptance. Working with our allies and partners, we push for new systems, policies and practice that foster better mental health and well-being.
- Advocacy: We advocate to improve the spaces, places and conditions that shape mental health.
Our Values:
We are:
- Inclusive: We want all people in Nova Scotia regardless of their ability, race, ethnicity, gender, age, economic status, sexual orientation, or gender identity, to have the right to their full potential in our society; the right to be treated with compassion, respect, and dignity, free from stigma and discrimination. We value the voices of those with lived experience and knowledge and we recognize the need for a diverse range of mental health approaches, acknowledging that everyone is unique.
- Steadfast: We have long fought to improve the state of mental health in Nova Scotia, but our work is not done. We are champions of social justice and remain committed to eliminating systemic barriers such as those caused by colonization and structural racism. We remain as committed as ever to our task.
- Progressive: We improve society by advocating for the conditions and policies required for good mental health for all.
- Proactive: We are leaders. We value action over talk. We will innovate and think ahead to continue to improve mental health in Nova Scotia.
- Compassionate: We lead with the heart. We are compassionate, empathetic, and caring. We approach our mission with love and kindness.
- Collaborative: We mobilize and marshal resources, partners, and people to come together to realize necessary changes in our communities and in the mental health system in Nova Scotia.
Our Strategic Plan
In April 2022, our staff and board collaborated to create a strategic plan that would act as our roadmap for the next three years.
The goal of this plan is to provide clarity and direction within our organization that will allow us to strengthen our collective impact, increase our profile and help shift public perceptions about mental health and mental illness.
The most important part of any successful strategy is people, so we started this plan by asking
as many as we could.
Through individual interviews and open and honest discussions we surveyed over 500 stakeholders in the community, including our clients, our branches, all levels of government and our peers in the nonprofit sector.
We talked to as many of them as we could. And most important of all, we listened.
This plan sets out who we are as an organization, what we want to be known for, and what we plan to do for the next three years to take us there. READ MORE
Contact Us:
Main Line: 1.877.466.6606
E-mail: Email: [email protected]