As some of you may know, I was invited to give a 1 hour mental health presentation on “A Functional Approach to Common Mental Health Conditions” by the head of psychiatry at Lions Gate Hospital. This was a part of Dr. Chakraborty’s Public Outreach Education Series, which as I found out on the day of the event, is actually open to patients as well as organizations and mental health care workers.
Dr Apu Chakraborty recently took over as director of Adult Community Mental Health Services at Lions Gate and may I say, what a breath of fresh air he is! Trained in England, Dr. Chakraborty brings a wealth of experience to his clients. He is clearly passionate about what he does, and has a great mandate in terms of his focus. Patients come first.
During the few hours I spent up at Lions Gate, which I affectionately call the most dangerous place on the Northshore, I got a clear sense of the changes being made to mental health services. Not only are they on the cusp of moving into their brand new facility, the HOpe Centre, but with their new director at the helm I get a sense that mental health services are moving into the 21st century at Lions Gate.
One of the biggest take home messages I got from my brief yet informative discussions with Dr Chakraborty is that he often spends his days taking people off medication. He mentioned that the amount of overmedicating in mental health is appalling in many cases. Of course, I could not agree more.
During my presentation, which focused on lifestyle, diet, genetics, nutrition and the theory of Psychoneuroimmunology, Dr Chakraborty jumped in several times in support of diet, along with validation that mental health episodes, commonly and clearly occur after traumatic events. Most of us would think this makes perfect sense but many conventional medicine advocates still have difficulty recognizing the clear stress connection.
I’m looking forward to returning to Lions Gate in the new year!