THUNDER BAY — A Thunder Bay-based clinical psychologist who's a leader in his field has received a Champions of Mental Health award from the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health.
Dr. Christopher Mushquash is one of seven recipients of the alliance's awards for 2020, given to individuals and organizations whose work has advanced the mental health agenda across the country.
Mushquash won the award for the Innovation - Researcher or Clinician category.
Among his numerous professional roles, he is a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Mental Health and Addiction, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Lakehead University and the Division of Human Sciences at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, and the Director of the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research at LU.
Dr. Mushquash, an Ojibway and member of Pays Plat First Nation, also provides assessment, intervention and consultation services for First Nations children, adolescents and adults at Dilico Anishinabek Family Care.
In announcing his award, the alliance described him as a generous volunteer who meets frequently with First Nations communities, organizations and students to discuss mental health and addiction.
"Through his work," it said, "he champions culturally and contextually appropriate mental health and addiction services for First Nations peoples, and for individuals living in rural and northern communities."
