Treating people with mental illness

Interdisciplinary teams at the Douglas Institute provide clinical services to all age groups in both French and English. The different services provided correspond to different areas of expertise in mental health, such as:

  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia
  • Schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis
  • Eating disorders
  • Bipolar disorders
  • Behaviour disorders
  • Attention deficit disorders in children

Access to mental health services in Quebec

To improve access to mental health services, the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux (MSSS) created an action plan in 2005 to reorganize mental health services in Quebec.

People who want to receive care for a mental health problem can therefore go to the “accueil psychosocial" (entry point) at their CLSC or consult their general practitioners. In the case of a crisis or emergency, they may go to the emergency or in a community crisis centre.

Each person is assessed and then directed to a service adapted to his or her needs. The person may:

  • Receive general 1st-line services (from a CLSC or general practitioner)
  • Receive services from the team of 1st-line mental health professionals at a Centre de santé et des services sociaux (CSSS)
  • Access more specialized services (known as 2nd- or 3rd-line services), such as those provided at the Douglas Institute.

Specialized clinical services in mental health

The Douglas Institute offers a broad range of specialized and superspecialized, internal (inpatient), or external (outpatient) services, which are offered through different programs:

As a general rule, patients need to have a doctor’s referral to access these services. You must consult the specific information for each program to find out how to access the service.

Care provided through the clinical programs at the Douglas Institute is covered by the Quebec health insurance plan.

Accessing patient records

The Medical Records Department is responsible for protecting personal information and preserving patient charts. To access your chart, you must be 14 years or older and send a duly completed request to the following address:

Douglas Institute
Medical Records
Perry Pavilion, Room E-1131
6875 LaSalle Boulevard
Montreal (Quebec) H4H 1R3
Phone: 514-762-3002
Fax: 514-762-7763
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Integrating research into care

Clinical programs are supported by research projects that constantly assess and improve clinical practice and that help advance knowledge of mental illness.

Teaching, training and knowledge transfer

The Douglas Institute is a teaching organization that offers various training activities and opportunities for learning lien enseignement within its clinical programs.

Program teams provide training to health care staff and community partners. They participate in knowledge transfer activities through presentations, lectures and symposia. They also supervise trainees from various disciplines and work with residents in psychiatry.