CULTURE, COMMUNITY & HEALTH STUDIES
Dr. Samuel Noh
Head of Program/Division
Tel: 416-535-8501 x7606  Fax: 416-979-0564
Email: samuel_noh@camh.net
Christine Vrbanac, Administrative Assistant
416-535-8501 x7608
Tel:
Email:
christine_vrbanac@camh.net
1. Essential Components of a selective rotation in this program/division must include:
The Culture, Community and Health Studies Program aims to expand and refine, through research, the
scientific basis for culturally competent clinical practices, and to develop innovative instructional curricula
to produce culturally competent health care providers. This rotation offers clinical and research education in
the areas of culture, community and international health and psychiatry. The rotation is offered across sites
– Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Toronto Western Hospital of the
University Health Network. Rotations can also be arranged with diverse community mental health care
agencies.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) offers opportunities for clinical rounds in cultural,
social and international psychiatry. One important development at the CAMH is the Social Aetiology of
Mental Illness training program (SAMI). Advances in molecular, genetic, brain-imaging and psychology
research have increased understanding of the patho-physiology and mechanisms involved but this
knowledge needs to be integrated with a better understanding of the social processes at play if discoveries
are to be converted into public health advances. Interdisciplinary expertise is required to integrate work on
social, psychological and biological causes. SAMI aims to train a new generation of experts through an
initiative that will focus on models of causation and the social determinants of mental illness and
addictions. They will undertake a didactic course followed by a research project where they will have an
unrivalled opportunity to be mentored by world experts. In addition, SAMI will have close ties and
partnerships with internationally recognized centres of excellence through mentors at the London School of
Economics; the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London; the University of Maastricht and Toronto’s
Centre for Global eHealth Innovation and Hospital for Sick Children. Web-based tools will be used to
develop forums and global networks of mentors, trainees and alumni that will further build capacity and
lead the field.
The community mental health and addictions program at the Toronto Western Hospital provides a unique
opportunity for residents interested in working with a diversity of ethnicities and languages in the heart of
one of Toronto’s most diverse neighbourhoods. As well as services in English, the program includes Asian
Mental Health services for the Cantonese and Mandarin speaking persons, and Portuguese Mental Health
and Addictions services for Portuguese-speaking persons from Brazil, Portugal, Azores, Mozambique, and
Angola. The remainder of community mental health services are to Spanish and Italian speaking Ontarians.
Assessment and treatment is conducted with the assistance of bilingual/bicultural mental health clinicians
using a collaborative care model.
The Mount Sinai Hospital Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Team is a working partner of the Hong
Fook Mental Health Association, which offers a myriad of services, including case management, consumer
support groups, supported housing programs, and Psychiatric Consultation services to ethnic minorities
group from South and South-East Asia, in their native languages in a culturally competent model. This
collaborative relationship between Mount Sinai and Hong Fook offers an exciting Selective opportunity for
a resident to work in cross-cultural psychiatry, develop skills as a psychiatric consultant to a community
agency, work with multi-cultural staff, learn how to work with linguistic and cultural interpreters, and learn
how to advocate and be part of a social organization that serves socially disadvantaged groups. The position
CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND HEALTH STUDIES: Senior Selective - Page 1 of 4
is ideal for Residents who have either an interest in cross-cultural psychiatry, or community/social
psychiatry, or chronic care, or combinations of the above. The Resident can also benefit from, but not
necessarily be involved, in the MSH ACT team, which is a unique and pioneering service that serves the
often marginalized, hard-to-reach, severe and persistently mentally ill clients who are mostly unilingual,
recent immigrants, and generally unfamiliar with mainstream mental health services. The Resident will
also have access to the rich supervisory resources at Mount Sinai Hospital, who have a focus on providing
an innovative, culturally competent, compassionate approach to serving this unique population. Residents
will experience front-line work in cultural psychiatry at Hong Fook, which includes assessment, treatment,
consultation, follow-up and education of ethnic minority clients. The population served are mainly, but not
restricted to, Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Vietnamese, Korean, and Cambodian. Opportunities to
learn and experience include dealing with acculturation, poverty, discrimination, being a refugee and other
forms of marginalization. Therapeutic interventions include psychosocial rehabilitation, mindfulness
meditation, CBT, art therapy, GP consultations, pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, as well as a variety of
group therapies are suitable. Residents will have an opportunity to participate in retrospective chart reviews and
case studies at varying levels of involvement according to their wishes and needs.
Experiences in senior selective rotation in this program/division could include:
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Residents will experience front-line work in cultural psychiatry and in the ethnocultural community
health centers, and will be involved in assessment, treatment, consultation, and education in the
context of a wide range of services to ethnocultural populations in Toronto. Opportunities also exists
to see patients in the community through various community health clinics, which serve diverse
populations of numerous languages and ethnicities, along with issues of poverty, discrimination and
other forms of marginalization. Therapeutic interventions include psychosocial rehabilitation,
mindfulness meditation, CBT, art therapy, GP consultations, pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, as
well as a variety of group therapies. Residents will have the opportunity to select one or more client
populations and can select from a variety of supervisors and services. In addition, residents with
strong research interests in cultural and international psychiatry may participate in a range of research
projects:
Cultural competency in psychiatric clinical practice.
Culture and stigma against mental illness
The use of complementary and alternative medicines in clinical populations
The mental health effects of discrimination experiences in racial/ethnic minorities
Ethnicity, social status, and pathways to law and mental health care
The long-term mental health impact of exposure to traumatic stress for minority youth
Multicultural meanings of social support
Epidemiological studies in Toronto's ethnic immigrant communities
Study of the health and development of immigrant and refugee children in Canada
Social epidemiology of addiction and mental health
2. Hospital/training sites where selective rotation is offered:
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Mount Sinai Hospital
Toronto Western Hospital (University Health Network)
Community sites: Hong Fook Mental Health Association, Across Boundaries, Ethnoracial Mental Health
Centre, Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture
CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND HEALTH STUDIES: Senior Selective - Page 2 of 4
Alternate Person for Interviews with Senior Residents Seeking Selective Rotations:
Dr.
Telephone
Ext
Email
4514
lisa.andermann@utoronto.ca
Lisa
Andermann
416-586-4800
Kenneth
Fung
416-603-5349
Dennis
Kussin
416-603-5800
2833
dennis.kussin@uhn.on.ca
Samuel
Law
416-586 9900
223
slaw@mtsinai.on.ca
Ted
Lo
416-297-4807
Kwame
McKenzie
416-535-8501
7636
kwame_mckenzie@camh.net
Samuel
Noh
416-535-8501
7606
samuel_noh@camh.net
Laura
Simich
416-535-8501
7618
Laura_simich@canh.net
kenneth.fung@utoronto.ca
ted1406@hotmail.com
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CULTURE, COMMUNITY AND HEALTH STUDIES: Senior Selective - Page 4 of 4