Notes from the guest editor.

In 2009, four institutes of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Gender and Health; Health Services and Policy Research; Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction; and Population and Public Health) sponsored the Fourth Annual Canadian Research Congress on Mental Health and Addictions in the Workplace, in Toronto, Ontario. Hosted by the Work and Well-Being Research and Evaluation Program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the theme of the congress was We Can Do It! Evidence and Interventions for Transforming Mental Health in the Workplace (see http://www.kewa.camh.net/researchers/areas/work_wellbeing/Pages/default.aspx for more details). Coincidentally, in the same year, an idealistic presidential hopeful named Barack Obama adopted a similar slogan for his White House run. Obama recognized that change that challenges established barriers can only come about through co-operation and a collective investment.