Can healthcare staff in Northern Quebec receive ongoing quality psychiatric training at a reasonable price? This was a question that preoccupied Charles-Édouard Carrier, department head of the Douglas’ Technical Platforms and Specialised Diagnoses, and telehealth coordinator. “As part of McGill-RUIS, we have a mandate to assist distantly-located communities in offering the best mental health services possible. Our current priority has been to meet the needs of northern communities. However, the sheer distance between us, and the differences between our cultures, presents significant challenges. Since I knew that ‘one-size-fits-all’ classes wouldn’t meet northern needs, I searched for ways to develop low-cost courses tailored to their situation.”

Charles-Édouard was aware that audiovisual equipment had already been installed at the Institute as part of the Douglas telehealth initiative. After ensuring he had all necessary start-up materials, Charles-Édouard proposed that the Douglas host a series of short teleteaching classes—focussing on subjects in which northern communities were in urgent need of support. Possible topics included eating disorders, schizophrenia, and anxiety—all areas of Douglas expertise—and administrative subjects such as coping with nursing shortages and dealing with cases involving the public curator.

Real Time Classes Popular

To launch the project, Charles-Édouard organized two trial classes on eating disorders for June 2007. The first class was taught by Eating Disorders Program Chief, Howard Steiger, PhD, and the second by Douglas Psychiatrist-in-Chief Mimi Israel, MD. The classes were produced in real time in the Maurice Forget Room. The format consisted of a 1.5 hour lecture, with an additional 30 minutes for questions from online students communicating via the Web. Participant feedback was highly positive. In the coming months, the Douglas wishes to secure new sources of financing to ensure the continuation of this project.

Charles-Édouard sees this as the latest in a long line of groundbreaking educational initiatives for the Douglas, “In addition to being relatively inexpensive to produce, these classes position the Douglas as the first member of McGill-RUIS to develop a teleteaching project designed specifically to meet the unique needs of Quebec’s northern population. I hope this initiative will inspire our McGill-RUIS partners, and other RUIS members, to develop additional teleteaching projects for various regions in Quebec and beyond. I see great potential for expansion in the future.”