Veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and their Families have long advocated for access to high quality mental health services along the continuum of care which understand the unique occupational stressors they have faced while fulfilling their duties. The Atlas Institute for Veterans and Families (Atlas) was borne out of this community advocacy, which led to a commitment for a new organization Canada’s Minister of Veterans Affairs’ mandate letter in 2015. We became operational in 2019 under our original name, the Centre of Excellence on PTSD and Related Mental Health Conditions, and re-branded to Atlas in 2022. Grounded in the understanding that Families also serve alongside the uniform, Atlas has maintained a dual focus on the mental health and wellbeing of military and RCMP Veterans and their Families, each with needs and experiences in their own right.
Guided by Lived Experience
Side by side with Canadian Veterans and their Families, Atlas generates evidence, mobilizes knowledge, influences policy and builds capacity among service providers to improve the mental health and well-being of Veterans and Families. We live our value of co-creation by embedding the lived expertise of Veterans and Families on our staff with a Lived Experience team; through our Strategic Reference Group, which provides integral feedback for our workplans; and through our various advisory committees that work with us to co-develop research studies and practical resources.
A Digital Hub Tailored for Veterans and Families and Those Who Work with Them
The Atlas Institute website serves as digital hub for a wide range of co-developed resources, including an online directory of peer support services across Canada; a suite of digital stories, featuring first-person testimonials of Veterans and Family member journeys with PTSD and other operational stress injuries; a knowledge hub, where you can find a range of toolkits, fact sheets, research summaries, and other resources, on topics including traumatic brain injury, suicide prevention, military sexual trauma, moral injury, and more; and a research repository, featuring actively recruiting and non-recruiting studies, along with information about all Atlas-led and Atlas-partnered research studies, on a wide range of topics, such as advancing what is known about neurofeedback treatment, and exploring the unique experiences of women Veterans. Given the unique needs of youth, Atlas has also engaged young people to co-create Mindkit, a dedicated website created for and by young Family members of Canadian Veterans living with a posttraumatic stress injury. Since part of our mandate is to enhance the capacity of mental health clinicians and service providers to use evidence-based practices, Atlas offers a range of training and implementation supports for service providers, including a variety of online learning modules that are free to eligible providers working with Canadian Veterans and Families. We also have a podcast, Mind Beyond the Mission, co-hosted by our Lived Experience Strategic Advisors, Brian McKenna and Laryssa Lamrock.
Committed to Collaboration
Our work thrives on collaboration, forming what we refer to as our Network of Networks. By collaborating with various groups and their networks nationwide, the Atlas Institute helps minimize overlap and promote synergy within the Canadian mental health and well-being system. We are dedicated to sustaining and growing our network relationships, engaging stakeholders across Canada and internationally, and fostering new partnerships.
With growing interest in tele-mental health services and other digital interventions, Atlas looks forward to participating in the eMHIC to raise awareness of some of the distinct needs of Veterans and Families, and to supporting collaborations to address current gaps in research and across systems of care.
