Hello and welcome to the first of my messages, as President, to the membership of OAMHP. 

I appreciate the notes and messages I have received from members. I welcome hearing from you about issues important to you as we evolve out of the virtual only connections to hybrid and in-person connections. 

Thank you all so much for attending our Annual Conference in September of this year – we hope it was a space to reflect, re-connect, re-energize, and re-commit to the mental health care profession. We also hope you found it to be a great opportunity to learn and to share your own work with others. The Conference itself was well attended, and we appreciate everyone who joined our AGM as well; your participation is invaluable. We are hoping to be back in person next year.

Bringing the Association to You!

We have heard from members that having opportunities to meet in person is important and of value to you. Therefore, I am beginning an initiative to MEET, GREET and SHARE over the coming months with members across Ontario. These gatherings will be a chance for local members in an area to gather and connect. If you are interested in working with me on "hosting" a local gathering in your community, please send a note to president@oamhp.ca and we, along with the OAMHP staff, can work to plan an in-person event. 

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Our conference also spanned September 30^th, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. I hope this day gave you pause to reflect on the impacts of historic and ongoing traumas on Indigenous colleagues and clients, ourselves, and our society. I hope too that you will find it in your hearts to walk your own path to advance justice. Understanding is an important step on this path so I am pleased to share a resource with you. The University of Alberta offers a free online course called Indigenous Canada, which I found helpful for my own understanding. The website is www.coursera.org.

Enhanced Member's Portal

I am also pleased to highlight the work that has been done over the past two years to enhance and develop the OAMHP website’s membership portal. Given the virtual evolution we have all experienced during the pandemic, a fully featured web tool is essential to supporting our members. The new portal is a wonderful place to engage in workshops, see all the CEC’s you have earned, and connect with your colleagues in the “My OAMHP Community”. My OAMHP Community will continue to be available for all your professional development and networking needs with OAMHP moving forward. We hope that allows for more connectivity not just with peers but with us, your association leadership team.

Looking Ahead

Our membership renewal is coming up – please keep an eye out for communications and feel free to ask any questions you may have about your association to our wonderful administration. I also look forward to engaging with the membership where I can – please drop me a line at president@oamhp.ca.

In closing, I would like to continue to encourage all our members to read the weekly Pulse that summarizes and shares key updates on initiatives, courses, sessions, and events that we offer our membership. So much continues to be done to enhance and support the value of our membership with the OAMHP. 

Most sincerely,

Liana Palmerio-McIvor 

RP, (Cert) OAMHP President