CIMHS

We are a not-for-profit that believes mental health services should be accessible to everyone. 1 in 5 Canadians (1 in 4 globally) suffer from mental illness every year and the majority of them don’t receive the help they need. Shortage of trained professionals, regional disparities in availability of services, cost, and the social stigma associated with mental health are preventing people from seeking help. A new medium for the delivery of mental health services has emerged in labs around the world called computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (ccbt), delivering psychotherapies through computers. In 2010 we set out to make mental health services more accessible by making this new form of therapy available online. After reviewing the academic research, writing an entire therapy manual adapted for an online setting, and building the website to deliver it all, we formed and launched CIMHS in 2013. We decided to make the organization a not-for-profit and operate it as a social business, after all such a solution should remain in the hands of the public.