REPORTS from Council
Ottawa forensic psychiatrist
presented with Council Award
Dr. Helen Ward, a forensic psychiatrist, was presented with the Council
Award at the May meeting.
Dr. Ward is clinical director of the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre’s 46bed forensic psychiatry unit where she supervises 10 psychiatrists, in addition to carrying a caseload of 12 to 16 inpatients, as well as 250 outpatients.
In 2007, Dr. Ward was instrumental in spearheading the creation of the Mental
Health Court in Ottawa. The collaborative program – involving the Crown,
judges and defence lawyers – is designed to help offenders with serious mental illness such as manic depression, severe anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and dementia get faster access
to treatment, and at the same time, determine their capacity for criminal behaviour or to face trial.
Dr. Ward is a tireless advocate for the mentally ill. She has spoken at international conferences on the subject of
mental health courts to promote this approach in other jurisdictions. She has also testified before the Canadian
Senate on this topic, as well as the potential negative consequences of a DNA bank for offenders found not
criminally responsible on criminal charges.
She testifies at about 50 Ontario Review Board hearings a year, to justify her recommendations for increasing
patients’ liberties.
Her colleague Dr. Jonathan Gray, who nominated her for this award, described her as “always warm, respectful
and engaged in all her interactions with other staff and patients.”
Dr. Ward: An advocate for the mentally ill
Q: Tell us about your childhood.
A: I was born in England and
immigrated to Canada with my
family when I was three. I grew up
in British Columbia in a very small
town called Lytton. One of the
distinguishing features of the town
was that it was about 75 per cent
aboriginal so I had a lot of exposure
to native culture. I played a lot
of sports – just about everything,
basketball, volleyball, badminton,
track – because that was about the
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DIALOGUE • Issue 2, 2014
only thing to do in a small town.
Sports gave me physical confidence
– both physically and emotionally – and helped offset the stigma
of being smart. Being smart wasn’t
cool but playing sports was.
Q: Why did you choose to specialize in forensic psychiatry?
A: I actually had some counselling
in my early 20s and found it very
helpful. You really can’t look after
your physical health if you’ve lost
your mental health. In Ottawa, I
took a one-month elective in
forensics in my first year and I was
immediately fascinated. I felt drawn
to working with people with
psychosis. What I like about
forensics is the combination of
working with people with psychosis
and then the whole medical/legal
aspect, having to interpret psychiatry for the courts, getting a chance
to work with people who have
fallen through the cracks of the civil
system and ended up in the courts.