Are you noticing that the eMentalHealth.ca database doesn't have a whole lot of resources for your area? If so, then consider being a local partner and helping us maintain the resource database for your area.
Background
The problem: Mental health challenges are common, and it is often not easy to find mental health help and information.
The solution: eMentalHealth.ca launched in 2005 to make it easier for Canadians to learn about mental health, as well as where to find help in their local communities.
Although originally developed for communities in Ontario, due to interest from other communities, our database was developed to have the capacity for resources for any community in Canada. Our custom eMentalHealth.ca resource platform makes it easy for any community to set up a complete mental health resource portal, which includes a community mental health Service Directory and Events Calendar.
Who are we?
Since 2013, eMentalHealth.ca is an initiative of CHEO (Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario) and the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute, in partnership with various agencies. Prior to that, eMentalHealth.ca was an initiative of the Ontario Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health, and gratefully acknowledges their support.
Partner with us as a "Local Partner"
eMentalHealth.ca can provide your community with access to our eMentalHealth.ca Resource Database.
Local partners are given administrative access and have the permission to manage the database of resources for a given local community.
This may involve 1) setting up the database (e.g. through emailing out known agencies and asking them to enter their resources into the database), and 2) maintaining the database (which includes reviewing user-submitted suggestions and edits to listings).
Database maintenance is actually quite simple due to the power of 'distributed content management'. While web visitors are viewing resources on the site, they are free to submit any suggestions to existing resources, or suggestions about new ones. Our user-friendly administrator interface makes it easy for administrators to rapidly approve, edit or reject those suggestions.
Benefits to your organization include being a lead in helping your community by making it easier for people to find the help they need. And of course, increased visibility for your non- profit organization...
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q. Our community already has a great local, regional and provincial level Information and Referral Service service -- we don't need eMentalHealth.ca.
If your community is happy with the database(s) that you have, that is wonderful! Feel free to let us know about your local information/referral services and websites. We would be happy to link to your local Information and Referral resources on our website.
At the same time, note that even in communities with an existing Information and Referral Service, we often hear that communities nonetheless appreciate the easy to use interface, and the mental health specific focus of eMentalHealth.ca, particularly for finding private practice providers.
Q. How exactly do you set up the database?
New partners will set up their local database in many ways:
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Email out the various mental health agencies in your area, and ask them to submit their listing to the eMentalHealth.ca website. And then, your administrators can review and publish their listing.
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Use volunteers or staff to just manually enter in the resources yourself. It takes usually 10-15 minutes to enter new resources into a database.
Q. Who owns the data?
Data entered by local partners into eMentalHealth.ca (which is all based on public domain information anyways) is joint property of the local partner and eMentalHealth.ca under a Creative Commons license, and either party is free to use as they wish.
Q. What if we decide later to leave eMentalHealth.ca? What happens to the data?
Should a local partner decide that they no longer wish to use eMentalHealth.ca to manage their local resource directory, we will be happy to provide a database dump of their data (into *.csv format) so that the data can be imported into other systems.
Q. How much does eMentalHealth.ca charge us to use the database?
We provide free access to our eMentalHealth.ca database system for publicly funded mental health organizations. We will provide a small amount of free, in-kind training on how to use our database. Additional training and support is available on a cost-recovery basis based on an hourly rate.
Although eMentalHealth.ca provides its local partners free administrator access, eMentalHealth.ca does cost funds to operate. Whenever possible, contributions and donations to eMentalHealth.ca are appreciated! Donations made via CHEO (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario) and are tax deductible.
This Page Last Updated: Nov 24, 2020