Dr. Tania Culham on committee leadership, collaboration, and reducing physician isolation
“We’re looking forward to the alcohol use sessions coming up, as it’s such a ubiquitous substance. Committees like this one are a great way to find a balance in our work lives and the Division gives us a way to contribute that is meaningful but quite different from clinical practice, and still remunerated. I encourage you to get involved.” - Dr. Tania Culham
Are you interested in joining this or another Vancouver Division committee? Learn more here
As a member of the Vancouver Division’s Mental Health and Substance Use (MHSU) Committee, Dr. Tania Culham has spent years helping connect family physicians with mental health resources, community organizations, and collaborative care initiatives across Vancouver.
Her involvement began with a gap she was seeing every day in practice.
Working extensively in child and youth mental health, Dr. Culham recognized that many family physicians were isolated from the broader network of services available to support patients and families.
“As Family doctors, we often don't have any idea what services are available to us, nor how to access them,” she says.
Through committee work and collaborative initiatives connected to the Division, she helped bring family physicians together with schools, youth services, community organizations, mental health teams, and other partners that physicians would rarely have opportunities to interact with otherwise.
“Family physicians never really get those opportunities to interact with these people and figure out where the services are,” she says. “You have to know these organizations exist before you can connect patients to them.”
For Dr. Culham, one of the greatest benefits of committee involvement has been the opportunity to connect physicians with one another and create spaces where practical knowledge can be shared openly.
“One of the best things about coming to committee meetings was hearing what everyone else knew,” she says. “People would say, ‘Oh, this service exists,’ or ‘Here’s how you access this.’ That kind of information sharing is incredibly valuable.”
Many of the initiatives that developed through these collaborations started small.
Early work connected to CBT Skills Groups eventually helped support the development of what is now Mind Space. Other collaborative projects focused on identifying gaps in mental health care, improving access to supports, and helping family physicians better navigate community resources.
Rather than starting from scratch, Dr. Culham says many successful initiatives grow by building relationships, adapting existing ideas, and learning from work already happening in other communities.
“We didn’t have to reinvent everything,” she says. “We could look at what was already working somewhere else, adapt it, and grow it into something that fit our community.”
She believes one of the Division’s greatest strengths is its ability to remain closely connected to physicians working directly in practice and to support collaborative work that responds to real challenges happening on the ground.
“We’re much closer to the ground level,” she says. “You’re not fighting through layers and layers before you can talk to someone who can actually help move things forward.”
Today, through the Mental Health and Substance Use Committee and related physician initiatives, family physicians continue helping shape mental health and substance use supports across Vancouver while building stronger connections with colleagues and community partners.
For physicians considering involvement, Dr. Culham emphasizes that meaningful contributions do not always begin with formal leadership roles or large-scale projects.
Sometimes they begin by joining a conversation, identifying a shared challenge, or connecting with colleagues working through similar issues.
If you are interested in getting involved with the Vancouver Division of Family Practice, including through physician committees and collaborative initiatives, visit our physician involvement page to learn more about current opportunities to connect, collaborate, and contribute.