West Queen West CAMH Wednesday: Welcome to the CAMH podcast.

by Rob Sysak, January 3, 2018

Welcome to the CAMH podcast

By Sean O’Malley, Senior Media Relations Specialist

Attention audiophiles, the official CAMH podcast is now online.

Co-hosted by myself and CAMH Senior Medical Advisor Dr. David Goldbloom, the CAMH podcast will introduce listeners to the work we do here, our world-class experts and clinicians on the front lines, and the clients we serve.

While much of what we discuss will be of particular interest to the CAMH community, we hope this podcast will be of interest to the millions of Canadians who deal with mental illness and addiction every year, and the millions more who care about them. Starting a podcast like this is important for awareness, that is why many people are beginning them now as they find it a positive tool to reach out to those who need the help. They will check out a resource like Lower Street, for example, to see how they can get it into production and join the millions of voices out there who have something to say, just like we do with mental health.

Over the course of the winter, as we count down to the twentieth anniversary of the formation of CAMH in March of 2018, we will have feature interviews with some of the experts who have helped make CAMH an international centre of research, treatment and innovation.

In this first episode, we take a deep dive into the just-released Ontario Student Drug Use Health Survey (OSDUHS), which is celebrating its own anniversary this year. The longest-running continuous survey of adolescent drug behaviour is now 40 years old, making it a treasure trove for researchers studying long-term trends.

As Dr. Goldbloom points out, with the opioid crisis still raging, and with marijuana about to be legalized, it is more important than ever to get evidence-based data like this to support sound public policy decisions.

We discuss with OSDUHS co-authors Dr. Robert Mann and Dr. Hayley Hamilton why there has been such a steep decline in overall drug use among Ontario teens, what kids think about impending marijuana legalization, and reminisce a bit about our own formative experiences as teenagers in relation to drugs and alcohol.

You can listen to it here on Soundcloud, and it will soon be available for download on iTunes. So check it out. Tell your co-workers, clients and friends about it. Let us know what you think.