When I was invited to join a panel on women's health hosted by the Economic Club of Canada, I was struck by the remarkable leaders I'd be sharing the stage with: Dr. Ariel Dalfen, Amii Stephenson and Dr. Simone Vigod.
While I have the privilege of leading CAMH, Canada's largest mental health teaching hospital, I didn't feel like I was an expert in the room.
So, I went looking for the women who are.
At CAMH, women make up 74% of our workforce and 64% of our executive leadership team. I am the third woman CEO of this organization. Every day, they are leading research, caring for patients and helping shape the future of mental health in Canada.
Over the past several weeks, I had the privilege of speaking with some of CAMH's leading researchers, clinicians and advocates in women's mental health, including Dr. Simone Vigod, Dr. Liisa Galea, Dr. Daisy Singla, Dr. Sumeeta Chatterjee, Dr. Suvercha Pasricha and Sandi Treliving.
Those conversations left me informed, humbled, hopeful, and inspired.
Here are five lessons I'll carry with me as I take the stage today.
1. Women's mental health isn't just a health issue. It's an economic and societal issue.
Dr. Simone Vigod, a leading expert in perinatal mental health, helped me understand that women's mental health can't be separated from the realities of women's lives.
Women's mental health is shaped by reproductive and hormonal transitions, but also by poverty, trauma, violence, caregiving responsibilities, and the systems women navigate every day. Women are workers, caregivers, parents, leaders, partners, and community builders. When a woman struggles, the impact rarely stops with her. It can be felt by families, workplaces, and entire communities.
What affects women affects all of us.
2. We've spent too long treating women as an afterthought in research and care.
In my conversation with Dr. Liisa Galea, senior scientist and the inaugural womenmind Treliving Family Chair in Women's Mental Health at CAMH, I was struck by how much of our understanding of health has been built without fully accounting for women's experiences.
Major life transitions such as puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause can have a profound impact on mental health. Yet women have historically been understudied, underdiagnosed, and too often dismissed.
One idea stayed with me: we can't deliver truly personalized care if half the population hasn't been adequately represented in the evidence.
3. We already know how to help many women. The challenge is access.
Dr. Daisy Singla, womenmind senior scientist and Canada Research Chair for Transformative Mental Healthcare, reminded me that innovation isn't always about discovering something new.
Approximately one in five pregnant and postpartum individuals experiences depression or anxiety, yet far too few receive evidence-based treatment. As leader of the SUMMIT Trial, the world's largest psychotherapy trial for pregnant and postpartum women, Dr. Singla's message was simple: "We already have effective treatments. The challenge is ensuring women can access them."
Her work is showing that psychotherapy can be delivered virtually and by trained nurses and midwives, helping more women access support. And the benefits extend far beyond the individual. Untreated perinatal mental health challenges are estimated to cost our economy $2 billion each year.
Listening to Dr. Singla, I was reminded that innovation isn't always about finding something new. Sometimes it's about making sure proven solutions reach the people who need them.
4. Listening to women's experiences is part of the solution.
Dr. Sumeeta Chatterjee, forensic psychiatrist and person in charge of CAMH’s forensic service, shared a line I haven't forgotten: women are not simply "small men".
Yet many of the models we use to understand health and illness were originally designed around male populations. Women often arrive in care settings carrying experiences of trauma, violence, caregiving, parenting, and family separation that shape both their health and their recovery. Their pathways into illness, crisis, and healing can look very different from men's.
Dr. Suvercha Pasricha, lead, women's inpatient unit at CAMH, reinforced why trauma-informed care matters. People need safety, trust, and dignity before healing can begin.
What encouraged me was seeing how these ideas are being put into practice. At CAMH, we've developed programs and approaches designed specifically around women's experiences, recognizing everything from trauma and family relationships to reproductive health and recovery. It's a reminder that when we listen to women, we can design care that better reflects and responds to their needs.
5. There is every reason to feel hopeful.
These conversations focused on serious challenges, but what stayed with me most was a sense of optimism.
Across CAMH, women are advancing our understanding of the brain, developing more accessible treatments, and designing care around women's real experiences. Through womenmind™, we're also helping support women scientists and ensuring more research questions relevant to women are being asked.
One person who exemplifies that commitment is Sandi Treliving, a member of the CAMH Foundation Board, whose family helped the CAMH Foundation launch womenmind™ in 2020 after recognizing a simple but important truth: women's mental health wasn't receiving the attention it deserved.
One story she shared with me stuck. After years of serving on the Board, she realized they had never had a dedicated discussion about women's mental health.
"I just assumed we were," she told me. That realization became a catalyst for action.
Since then, womenmind™ has helped advance women-centred research, support women scientists, and build momentum around a field that was too often overlooked. Perhaps most importantly, it has shown what is possible when we invest intentionally in women's mental health.
As I take the stage today, I feel humbled and inspired by the incredible women who are helping shape the future of women's mental health.
I'm deeply grateful to them for their time, expertise, and generosity. Their work reminds me that while there is still much to do, there is also every reason to feel hopeful.
