Through its education initiatives, Schizophrenia Society of Canada aims to provide reliable, Canadian-based information for those living with mental illness and their families. The mental health resources listed below offer relevant information, tools, and support for individuals in need of mental health help and their families.

Hope and Recovery: Your Guide to Living with and Beyond Schizophrenia

This guide has been developed to provide information and guidance to young people who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia and those who support them. Our hope is that this guide will be a meaningful resource with up-to-date information and accessible information about living with and beyond schizophrenia and setting the course toward recovery. The guide arose out of the Canadian Schizophrenia Guidelines (2017) which provide evidence-based recommendations for the treatment of schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.  The Guidelines were developed by a working group of experts with the Canadian Psychiatric Association (including people with lived experience and family members).

Your Personal Recovery Journey

Your Personal Recovery Journey is a facilitated in person or virtual education program that is intended for anyone living with signs and symptoms of any type of mental illness or mental health problem that affects their lives. It is facilitated by people who themselves have experience with a mental illness and experience with recovery.

Your Personal Recovery Journey is a free  six-module program based on the CHIME framework for personal recovery (Leamy M, Bird V, le Boutillier C, Williams J, Slade M (2011)). CHIME stands for Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning, and Empowerment.

Through presentations, personal recovery story videos, self-reflection exercises, and discussion, participants will develop their own personal recovery strengths and discover ways that they can take what they learn and use it in their lives.

Family Recovery Journey

Family Recovery Journey (FRJ) was designed to meet the needs of a range of families, including those with a recently diagnosed family member. We aimed to develop FRJ as a responsive, impartial, and flexible program for Canadians. It focuses on recovery, or the possibility to live a full and meaningful life after diagnosis with a sense of hope, purpose, meaning, and social inclusion. It also considers how families are also in recovery from the traumatic effects of mental illness upon the family.

Rays of Hope

Now in its fifth edition, this is a “must-have” publication for families and caregivers of individuals with schizophrenia. Rays of Hope is available here to download, or a copy of the book can be purchased through your provincial schizophrenia society office.