Champions of Innovative Mental Health
Before Operational Stress Canada is owned and operated by Wayfound Mental Health Group Inc.
Wayfound Mental Health Group was founded in 1999 by Dr. William Gordon McElheran. As a pioneer in mental health treatment, he quickly attracted the best counselling talent in the province. He passed the operational reigns over to his daughter, Dr. Megan McElheran, who has been successfully leading the practice for over 15 years.
Today, the practice is known as the pre-eminent trauma treatment clinic across Canada. We provide world class mental health services to all our clients across our four locations in Calgary, Red Deer, Edmonton, and the Greater Toronto Area. We are caring and collaborative in the communities we serve. We remain steadfast in advocating for mental health care for all, continuously striving to innovate new ways to provide mental health supports using cutting edge research and technology.
Why We Created BOS
One of the things our experience has taught us is that we are in the midst of a mental health epidemic in our country and around the world. Rates of depression, anxiety disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), addictions, and suicide rates are at an all-time high, with predictable negative impacts on Canadian families and communities. There has never been a more important time to focus on issues of mental health than now.
Our healthcare workers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics and many other frontline workers are experiencing unprecedented levels of workplace stress and burnout. We believe it is time to help those suffering from debilitating mental health conditions to find a way back to mental health and wellness, and to use innovation, science, and research to help us in that pursuit.
“The BOS program was developed and researched by Canada’s leading mental health experts. Dr. McElheran lead a team to design BOS specifically to help frontline workers combat mental health issues and arm them with tangible tools to manage their workplace stress and burnout.”
Photo Credit: Daniel Sundahl | https://www.dansunphotos.com/
Wayfound Mental Health Group Proudly Partners with
Wounded Warriors Canada
In 2017, WWC identified a goal of adding an upstream delivery to their list of clinical programs and determined BOS to be the curriculum they were seeking. Wayfound and WWC entered into a memorandum of understanding early in 2018 to work in partnership toward the evaluation and pan-Canadian dissemination of the BOS program. WWC provided the initial funding for the postdoctoral fellow who was hired to complete independent evaluation of the BOS program through the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment. They additionally provided the initial funding for the first 150 participants who completed the BOS program.
Wayfound and WWC are tremendously proud of the partnership we have formed, and we are pleased to highlight the significant roots of connection between our two organizations. We will continue to work in partnership as the BOS program is disseminated across Canada and beyond. With the feedback we have received from organizations we have served, we have now developed a lecture series format of the BOS program for new recruits; a virtual, peer-driven version of the program; and a digital, go-at-your-own pace offering to provide broad availability of the BOS content for all public safety personnel across the country.
Government Funded Mental Health Support
For a limited time, the BOS Online program is offered at no cost to participants in Canada thanks to the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). PHAC awarded $9 million to the University of Regina and the Canadian Institute of Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT) who are partnering with Wayfound Mental Health Group to provide the BOS Online program to public safety personnel and frontline healthcare workers.
