ABSTRACT
Here, we provide a brief overview of the Canadian context for psychiatric and mental health nursing. Canada is a federation consisting of 10 provinces and three territories, the world’s second largest country in total area. Our perspective is from Ontario and in particular Ottawa, Canada’s capital. We shall share one story of our experience with psychiatric and mental health nursing, the craft of caring at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.
Canadians are very proud of their healthcare system. In a television contest in 2004, Canadians voted Tommy Douglas as ‘The Greatest Canadian’, no doubt because of his most memorable achievement – North America’s first government-run hospital and medical care insurance plan. He saw the birth of public hospitalization and Medicare, universal insurance for hospital and physician
