Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. I've had the privilege of working with all of your organizations over the last seven or eight years in different capacities in my work on suicide prevention, palliative care, and many of these initiatives that have been forwarded, and you've been very cooperative. All of your groups have been extremely helpful.
The one thing that I did notice in all of your comments was your commendation of the government for having extended its funding and support for the Mental Health Commission over the next 10-year period. I appreciate that because I do think, as Mr. Gallson pointed out, that it is the one single national coordinator and has the capacity and respect to bring stakeholders together.
Mr. Phelps, you mentioned in your opening comment, as you acknowledged the extension of funding for the Mental Health Commission, that now is the time for a call to action in addition to simply research. I would just like your opinion on two of the calls to action that I think the Mental Health Commission has done and is embarking upon. The first was the #308conversations that were engaged in by many parliamentarians and community people over the last year in many communities across Canada. I'd like your opinion on the effectiveness of their goal in reducing the stigma around mental health issues and suicide prevention.
Then, secondly, at the last meeting we had Louise Bradley from the Mental Health Commission here, who pointed out the second phase of an initiative developing a community-based model for suicide prevention. The model aims to adapt and implement an existing and effective suicide program to the Canadian context. It's now developed by Dr. Ulrich Hegerl, in a multi-level, community-based suicide prevention initiative that has been shown to be effective in reducing suicide by 24%. I think as committee members, as parliamentarians, this is our goal. We want to see action. We want to see measurable improvements in mental health and reductions in numbers of suicides and attempted suicides.
Could you comment, Mr. Phelps, and then I'll see if we have time for some of the other panel members to respond on those two questions.