BrainLinks Canada Connects People, Research and Practice

WATERLOO - Today, Lutherwood is hosting 35 children’s mental health leaders from across Canada at its Children’s Mental Health Centre in Waterloo. The group is engaging in the organization’s first national conference - BrainLinks Canada. The symposium-style gathering will explore recent advances in adolescent brain development and mental health research, and look for ways to translate advances such as these into mental health practice across Canada.

“Canadian children’s mental health services have developed differently in every province due to varying funding levels, differing population needs and a weak flow of applied research into clinical practice,” said Dr. John Colangeli, CEO of Lutherwood. “We are bringing children’s mental health leaders together to form a national network that will share each others’ knowledge and experience to deliver consistent, high-quality children’s mental health service across Canada including in harder to serve rural and northern areas.”

BrainLinks Canada is bringing people together to look at some practical research, explore some current best practices, and create a national network of professionals who want to “connect people, research and practice” – the theme for the conference which is sponsored by Kids’ Health Links Foundation. BrainLinks Canada is the first conference to be held by Lutherwood’s new Institute for Children and Youth Mental Health. Funded through a $250,000 donation from The Cowan Foundation and a $75,000 donation from the Lyle S Hallman Foundation, Lutherwood created this Institute based on a vision of national collaboration to share applied research and develop promising treatment approaches to support improved children’s mental health service delivery across Canada.

For more information, please visit BrainLinks Canada .

Lutherwood is a not-for-profit health and social service organization that supports youth with mental health issues, workers looking for employment, people at risk of being homeless and families in need of counselling. Its services are accessed by more than 22,500 people annually in Waterloo Region and Wellington County.