I arrived in Penetanguishene on a crisp autumn morning, the kind where fog hangs low over Georgian Bay before reluctantly yielding to sunlight. The grounds of Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care stand in stark contrast to the outdated asylums of our collective imagination. Modern buildings nestle against heritage structures, all surrounded by towering pines that have witnessed decades of evolving mental health care approaches.
“We’ve always known the connections between trauma, violence, and mental health are deeply intertwined,” Dr. Nadiya Sunderji tells me as we walk through Waypoint’s main corridor. As the President and CEO of Waypoint, she’s been at the forefront of pushing for a more integrated approach to mental health and violence prevention. “But our systems have operated in silos for too long.”
That’s about to change. After years of advocacy, Waypoint has secured $8 million in federal funding to establish Canada’s first-ever Mental Health Anti-Violence Hub. The announcement marks a watershed moment in how Canada approaches the intersection of mental health treatment and violence prevention.
The new hub will tackle a critical gap in Canada’s mental health infrastructure. Mental Health Commission of Canada data shows that people with serious mental illness are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators, yet services rarely address both issues simultaneously. Statistics Canada reports that people with mental illness are four times more likely to experience violent victimization compared to the general population.
“What makes this approach revolutionary is that we’re creating a model where expertise in both mental health and violence prevention work hand-in-hand,” explains Dr. Sunderji. “We’re not just treating symptoms after they appear; we’re building capacity to prevent violence in the first place.”
The hub will operate as both a physical and virtual resource, creating a network for healthcare providers, law enforcement, social services, and community organizations across the country. At its core, the initiative aims to transform how front-line workers identify and respond to the complex needs of individuals experiencing mental illness who may be at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of violence.
When I speak with Rebecca Raymond, a peer support worker who has navigated the mental health system as both patient and provider, she offers perspective on why this integrated approach matters.
“In my experience, the system often doesn’t recognize how trauma and violence shape someone’s mental health journey,” Raymond says, gazing out at the bay from Waypoint’s community room. “I’ve seen people bounce between emergency rooms, shelters, and sometimes jails, because no one service could address the whole picture.”
This fragmentation is what the hub aims to resolve. By creating specialized training programs, research initiatives, and a community of practice, Waypoint hopes to build a more coherent national approach to these interconnected issues.
The initiative comes at a critical time. A recent Canadian Institute for Health Information study found that emergency department visits for mental health concerns increased by 25 percent in the five years preceding the pandemic, with rates climbing even higher since 2020. Meanwhile, police services across Canada report spending up to 20 percent of their time responding to mental health-related calls.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Jordan Ferguson, who consults with the project, notes the potential impact on police services: “Officers are often the first contact for people in mental health crisis, but we’re not mental health professionals. This hub will help us develop better protocols for de-escalation and connecting people with appropriate care rather than criminalizing mental illness.”
What distinguishes this initiative is its commitment to centering the voices of those with lived experience. Waypoint has established a diverse advisory committee that includes people who have experienced both mental illness and violence.
“The system has historically been designed without meaningful input from the people it serves,” says Marie Corbett, a committee member who survived domestic violence while struggling with bipolar disorder. “When I was in crisis, I needed someone who understood both my trauma and my mental health needs. This hub is about creating that understanding across systems.”
The $8 million federal investment will be distributed over four years, allowing for a phased implementation that begins with training programs for frontline workers and the development of a national knowledge network. Future phases will include specialized research initiatives and the creation of model intervention programs that can be adapted to various communities.
Dr. Kenneth Rogers, a psychologist specializing in trauma-informed care at the University of Toronto, sees the hub as a potential turning point. “We’ve accumulated decades of research showing that trauma and violence are often at the root of many mental health challenges,” he explains. “But translating that knowledge into practical, coordinated approaches has been elusive. This hub could finally bridge that gap.”
As the afternoon sun casts long shadows across Waypoint’s campus, I sit with Dr. Sunderji one last time. She shares her vision for what success might look like five years from now.
“I imagine a country where someone experiencing both mental illness and violence doesn’t have to tell their story ten different times to ten different providers,” she says. “Where police officers, emergency room doctors, shelter workers, and therapists all speak a common language and work within a coherent framework. Where we prevent crises before they happen because we’ve addressed the underlying factors that contribute to both violence and mental health challenges.”
It’s an ambitious vision, but as I drive away from Georgian Bay, watching the pines recede in my rearview mirror, I can’t help but feel that something transformative has begun. In a system long characterized by fragmentation, the Mental Health Anti-Violence Hub represents a rare moment of convergence—where research, lived experience, and political will align to address one of the most complex challenges in public health.
For thousands of Canadians caught at the intersection of mental illness and violence, that convergence can’t come soon enough.
