Internet Mental Health is a free encyclopedia of mental health information created by a Canadian psychiatrist, Dr. Phillip Long.
The idea of creating Internet Mental Health resulted from a Canada-Japan Mental Health Exchange in 1994 arranged by Mr. Mikio Kuraki. During that exchange, Robert Winram and Dr. Phillip Long visited Japanese psychiatric hospitals and lived for one week with psychiatric patients as guests in their homes.
The Canadian delegation was amazed to find that, in Japan, the average length of stay in psychiatric hospital for a patient with schizophrenia was four years. In Canada, the same patients would be hospitalized for only four weeks, then followed as outpatients. The most outstanding need in Japan, our hosts told us, was for more information concerning our mental health system in Canada.
Thus the concept of Internet Mental Health was born. By using the internet, our hope was that we could freely share whatever information we have on mental health with the world. Robert Winram played an absolutely essential role in motivating our efforts to continue this website. Without his inspiration, it is doubtful whether this website would exist today. Robert was a leader in the mental health movement in Vancouver when we first met. We often spoke together in public lectures on mental health. It was Robert who never let us forget how important it was that this website try to contact the two-thirds of the severely mentally ill who never seek treatment. Thus I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Robert for his vision and his steadfast support of this website. Robert convinced us that the impossible was possible.
You could help us improve Internet Mental Health. Please write to us with your comments and suggestions.