Addictions-Mental Health Ontr

About Us

At Addictions and Mental Health Ontario (AMHO), we represent over 150 addictions and mental health organizations in Ontario, Canada. Our vision is to create the best addictions and mental health system, anywhere. We are committed to building a comprehensive and accessible system of addiction and mental health care, and improving the well-being of individuals, families, and communities in Ontario.

Who We Are

We are a membership-based, non-profit organization with a diverse group of members that spans the full continuum of addiction and mental health organizations and services. Our members range from community-based service providers to peer support and consumer survivor groups, to Community Health Centres, harm reduction, and hospital-based services.

What We Do

As the collective voice of our members, we provide leadership and engage partners to build a comprehensive and accessible system of addiction and mental health care. We do this through policy work, advocacy initiatives, service development, knowledge exchange, education offerings, and quality improvement work.

Why We Do It

In any year, 2.5 million Ontarians will experience an addiction or mental illness challenge. Yet as many as one third of Ontarians who identify themselves as needing mental health or addiction services report not getting help, or having their needs only partially met. Those who do reach out for help often face significant wait times for services. While mental illness and addiction represent 10% of the burden of disease, around 6% of Ontario's public investment in health care addresses these problems.

Our Work

At AMHO, we are committed to mobilizing, advocating, and serving our members. Our work is focused on three key areas:

1. Mobilize - Our members possess deep sector knowledge, expertise, and experience. They provide excellent mental health and addictions programs and are innovative in their approach to care. AMHO plays a leading role in working with our members to mobilize their knowledge and innovation, build capacity, and scale sector-leading best practices.

2. Advocate - We advocate for meaningful and sustainable change at the system level. We ensure that the voices and perspectives of our members, and the clients they serve, are engaged in driving change with government and the public. We will continue to advance practical yet ambitious solutions to address major system challenges like the health human resources shortages, underinvestment, the opioid crisis and access to housing.

3. Serve - Our members are facing an environment of profound change and uncertainty. Therefore, we are committed to facilitating practical and strategic knowledge exchange by equipping our members with the information needed to understand, navigate and act on the system changes. We provide excellent and timely analysis on issues of top relevance to the membership and support their ability to rapidly act on and/or adapt to system changes and opportunities.

Join Us

AMHO members provide a range of community-based addiction and mental health services and supports that help Ontarians with their recovery. These services include supportive housing, live-in addiction treatment, case management, and counseling, peer and family support, employment programs, crisis & withdrawal management, psychiatric hospitals and hospital-based programs, and community mental health and substance use services.

As an AMHO member, you will have access to up-to-date information and resources, advocacy and government relations, professional development and knowledge exchanges, conferences and leadership forums, events and networking opportunities, group benefits and insurance rates, policy, service development and quality improvement work.

Join us in our mission to improve the well-being of Ontarians and become an AMHO member today.