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Spring 2009 | Vol 12 No 3

A view from CAMH

Dr. David Goldbloom

This issue of CrossCurrents focuses on trauma-informed care, which in its broadest conceptualization means an effort to understand and integrate the experiences of the individual into efforts to support and help that person – a position against which it would be difficult to argue. This is not the same as earlier versions of thinking about trauma, which at its most extreme assumed that everyone with psychiatric symptoms must have been traumatized in some way – a vogue that at its worst led to the transient epidemic of “recovered memories” of satanic ritual abuse a couple of decades ago. Thinking about how traumatic experiences may influence perception of a therapeutic environment and interaction reflects a more nuanced and more client-centred approach.

With this issue, I conclude my tenure as executive editor of CrossCurrents. Over the past five years, working with editor Hema Zbogar and the editorial board has been stimulating and fun, and I am extremely grateful to everyone who has contributed to the content – including our intrepid reporters. It’s impossible to conceive of CrossCurrents without Hema’s drive, intellectual curiosity, willingness to ask tough questions and candour.

The good news is that my successor as executive editor is my friend and colleague Dr. Kwame McKenzie. CAMH was fortunate to recruit Kwame almost two years ago from the Institute of Psychiatry in London, England, where he had already garnered an international reputation as a scholar and communicator – with a background not only as a research scientist but also as a journalist, book author and radio broadcaster. It’s the perfect combination of science, advocacy and outreach for CrossCurrents. At CAMH, Kwame is deputy clinical director of the Schizophrenia Program and a senior scientist in the Social Equity and Health research program, as well as medical director for Diversity. He is also a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto and a professor at the Institute of Philosophy, Diversity and Mental Health at the University of Lancashire in England. As an academic, he works on the science of improving mental health services, with a particular but broad focus on the social determinants of health. I am confident he will take CrossCurrents in new directions and I look forward to joining all of you as an avid reader of upcoming issues!

David S. Goldbloom, MD, FRCPC
Executive Editor, CrossCurrents;
Senior Medical Advisor,
Education and Public Affairs, CAMH
Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto