The symposium on Canadian psychiatry featured leaders discussing future perspectives, challenges, and values within the mental health care system. Key topics included the importance of collegiality, health care organization challenges, and the role of positive psychiatry in building resilience. Participants aimed to enhance understanding of these issues and foster healthier communities over the next decade.

1. Symposium
Perspectives on Canadian Psychiatry:
The Vision of Three Leaders
Chair: Vincenzo Di Nicola
Panel: Doug Urness, Gary Chaimowitz, Hygiea Casiano
73rd Annual Conference
Vancouver, British Columbia
October 20, 2023

2. Chair:
• Vincenzo Di Nicola, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FCAHS,
Quebec Director, CPA Board
Symposium Panel:
• Douglas Urness, MD, FRCPC, Past President, CPA
• Gary A. Chaimowitz, MB, ChB, MBA, FRCPC, President, CPA
• Hygiea Casiano, MD, FRCPC, President-Elect, CPA

3. Conflicts of interest
•The presenters have no financial conflicts of interest
to declare

4. Learning Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
• 1) Present informed perspectives on the future of Canadian psychiatry
• 2) To identify established strengths and emerging challenges that
the mental health care system in Canada faces in the next decade
• 3) To discuss the value of resiliency and positive psychiatry techniques
for building healthier communities and institutions

6. Introduction: Vincenzo Di Nicola
• This symposium convenes three leaders from across Canada to
discuss their concerns, values and visions for Canadian
psychiatry in the next decade.
• As chair, Vincenzo Di Nicola, co-author of Psychiatry in Crisis
(2021), offers bridging comments on these three perspectives
on Canadian psychiatry and moderates a discussion with them.

7. Douglas Urness
• Douglas Urness considers continuing professional
development (CPD), advocacy and collegiality as the starting
point for continuity and renewal.
• Professional and public polarizations now make collegiality
crucially important.

21. Gary Chaimowitz
• Gary Chaimowitz addresseskey issues facing psychiatry in the next
decade, ranging from critical challengesin health care organization and
delivery (access to care, privatization,quality of care, human resources)
and Canadian psychiatry’s collegialrelationshipsamong ourselves
(includingwork stressand physician burnout)and with others (clinical
psychologists,allied professions,interdisciplinary and international
collaborations)to social issues (e.g., environmentalanxiety) and
advocacy (i.e.,equality, diversity and inclusiveness).

22. Hygiea Casiano
• Hygiea Casiano values resiliency and using positive psychiatry
techniques to build healthier institutions and communities.
• This value orientation is particularly impressive given her role in
forensic child and adolescent psychiatry, working with youth
confronting trauma and self-harm.

23. Building Resiliency Through
Positive Psychiatry

24. Canadian Institute for Health Information (2022)

25. Canadian Institute for Health Information (2022)

26. Canadian Institute for Health Information (2022)

27. How can we increase resiliency?

28. Differences Between Traditional and Positive Psychiatry
Jeste, et al. (2015)

32. Conclusion
I see humanity as a family
that has hardly met.
– Theodore Zeldin
An Intimate History of Humanity

33. 33
“There is a
crack in everything
— that’s how the
light gets in”
— Leonard Cohen
“Anthem”

34. Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to:
•Douglas Urness
•Gary Chaimowitz
•Hygiea Casiano
•The Board of the Canadian Psychiatric Association

35. References
• Canadian Institute for Health Information. Measuring access to priority health services
[Product release]. Accessed February 6, 2023.
• Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The Crisis is Real.
https://www.camh.ca/en/driving-change/the-crisis-is-real. Accessed February 6, 2023.
• Di Nicola V, Stoyanov D. Psychiatry in Crisis: At the Crossroads of Social Science, The
Humanities, and Neuroscience. Foreword by KWM Fulford, MD, Afterword by A
Frances, MD. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature, 2021.
• Jeste DV, Palmer BW, Rettew DC, Boardman S. Positive psychiatry: its time has come. J
Clin Psychiatry. 2015 Jun;76(6):675-83.