My Coping Tool: How I Deal With Stress

Introduction

Sometimes you can feel very stressed, angry, or upset. You may feel so out of control that you don’t know what to do to feel calm again. Some people call this “feeling in crisis”. It is important to have a plan for when this happens. My Coping Tool helps you and other people know what to do when you don’t feel like your usual self.

You can download and print the form. Fill this out by yourself, with your family doctor, or with someone who knows you well. You or people around you can look at your filled-in My Coping Tool as soon as you start feeling very stressed, angry or upset. Everyone then knows what to do when this happens.

Download: My Coping Tool
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Meet the team
About the tool development

Clinical leads

Dr. Yona Lunsky is Director of the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She directs the Health Care Access and Developmental Disabilities Program (H-CARDD) which brings research, policy and practice together to improve the health of adults with developmental disabilities. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Toronto.

Dr. Ullanda Niel is the Chief of Family Medicine and a Developmental Consultant at Surrey Place. She is also a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University. She has a robust clinical practice as a Family Physician at a Community Health Centre and a group home in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Niel has completed a fellowship in the Primary Care of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities at Queen’s University. She participated in creating The 2018 Canadian Consensus Guidelines on Primary Care for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and clinical resources for the transition of youth with intellectual disabilities to adult care and other point of care tools

Authors

Kerry Boyd, MD, FRCPC, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

Elspeth Bradley, MBBS, PhD, FRCPC, FRCPsych, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto; consulting psychiatrist and psychotherapist in intellectual disabilities

Laurie Green, MD, CCFP(EM), FCFP, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

Karen McNeil, MD, CCFP, FCFP, family physician and Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Anupam Thakur, MBBS, MD, MSc, Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Surrey Place, Toronto; staff psychiatrist and education scholar, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

Alicia Thatcher, MD, CCFP, Regina, Saskatchewan

William Sullivan, MD, CCFP(COE), FCFP, PhD, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Chair in Bioethics, Senior Research Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics; Full Professor of Family Medicine, Georgetown University

My Coping Tool was developed in the context of the update of the 2011 primary care mental health care toolkit, published in: Sullivan WF, Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Initiative Scientific and Editorial Staff, editors. Tools for the primary care of people with developmental disabilities. Toronto: MUMS Guideline Clearing House; 2011. The content development for My Coping Tool was subject to review by primary care providers, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and families part of the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre advisory at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto.

Meet the team

Clinical leads

Dr. Yona Lunsky is Director of the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre, and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She directs the Health Care Access and Developmental Disabilities Program (H-CARDD) which brings research, policy and practice together to improve the health of adults with developmental disabilities. She is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Toronto.

Dr. Ullanda Niel is the Chief of Family Medicine and a Developmental Consultant at Surrey Place. She is also a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and Queen’s University. She has a robust clinical practice as a Family Physician at a Community Health Centre and a group home in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Niel has completed a fellowship in the Primary Care of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities at Queen’s University. She participated in creating The 2018 Canadian Consensus Guidelines on Primary Care for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and clinical resources for the transition of youth with intellectual disabilities to adult care and other point of care tools

Authors

Kerry Boyd, MD, FRCPC, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario

Elspeth Bradley, MBBS, PhD, FRCPC, FRCPsych, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto; consulting psychiatrist and psychotherapist in intellectual disabilities

Laurie Green, MD, CCFP(EM), FCFP, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario

Karen McNeil, MD, CCFP, FCFP, family physician and Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Anupam Thakur, MBBS, MD, MSc, Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Surrey Place, Toronto; staff psychiatrist and education scholar, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

Alicia Thatcher, MD, CCFP, Regina, Saskatchewan

William Sullivan, MD, CCFP(COE), FCFP, PhD, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Chair in Bioethics, Senior Research Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics; Full Professor of Family Medicine, Georgetown University
About the tool development

My Coping Tool was developed in the context of the update of the 2011 primary care mental health care toolkit, published in: Sullivan WF, Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Initiative Scientific and Editorial Staff, editors. Tools for the primary care of people with developmental disabilities. Toronto: MUMS Guideline Clearing House; 2011. The content development for My Coping Tool was subject to review by primary care providers, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and families part of the Azrieli Adult Neurodevelopmental Centre advisory at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), Toronto.

All rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, Surrey Place. Contact the Developmental Disabilities Primary Care Program at Surrey Place at ddpcp@surreyplace.ca for permission to adapt information and tools to your local practice setting.

My Coping Tool: How I Deal With Stress

My Coping Tool: How I Deal With Stress

Introduction

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Clinical leads

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