In order to detect and treat psychiatric illness at an early stage, a $4-million Calgary centre would soon be functional in Canada. The Centre would be adjacent to Foothills hospital. It will unite mental health and neuroscience researchers under one roof.

The centre will be set up in  partnership between the University of Calgary, Alberta Health and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute.

Head of U of C's department of psychiatry, McQueen said that diverse mental health researchers, clinicians and neuroscientists would come together at the centre and contribute to "a generation of new knowledge."

It is pertinent to note that most mental illness strike people before the age of 20. The Calgary centre would specialize in the prevention, detection and early intervention of depression, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

According to Dr. Tom Feesby, dean of the faculty of medicine at the U of C, mental health issues were still way behind in research and social understanding. He also mentioned that one-in-five Canadians was a victim of mental illness, depression or addiction.