Oh Canada: Your Mental Health Contributions

Psychiatry & Society

H. Steven Moffic, MD, reviews Canada's contributions to mental health in comparison with the United States, which he believes are immense.

Some important items Moffic notes:

• Canada recently elected a liberal prime minster, Mark Carney, who was sworn in March 2025.
• Canada, unlike the US, never had slavery. However, both countries treated Native Americans and Indigenous groups poorly.

Canada's contributions to psychiatry include include:

• A robust insurance system, which is a national single-payor system
• Transcultural psychiatry
• Well-regarded practicing psychiatrists

"We [as countries] have a lot to contribute to each other," concluded Moffic.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.