When the planning for St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton’s new West 5th campus began more than a decade ago, words like ‘stigma’ and ‘integration’ were on the minds of many, but not yet widely used or understood – especially when speaking publicly about mental illness and addiction.Read More →
Written by Anita Levesque Next week, October 5-11, 2014, is Mental Illness Awareness Week. I know this week is important, but has it REALLY been given the attention it deserves in the past? I don’t think so. When I heard the news of Robin Williams and saw the media attention, days and weeks following, it made me sad. Why does it always take the death of a celebrity to build the awareness of mental illness? Mental illness should be a DAILY awareness, not just when something unimaginable occurs.Read More →
Learn and follow best practices when handling employee mental health issues to make accommodation as easy as possible on both the employee and your organization Date: Oct 14, 2014 Time: 12 — 1 pm ET Cost: $69Read More →
More than 40 landmarks across Canada will be lit up with purple lights across on Oct. 10, World Mental Health Day, including a few in the Tri-Cities. And Carol Todd would like to see many more. The Port Coquitlam teacher, whose daughter committed suicide in 2012, is hoping everyone wears purple or puts up purple lights as part of the Light Up Purple 2014 campaign to spark a conversation on mental health and the need for awareness, support and resources.Read More →
Do you face mental health stigma in the workplace? Learn how to let go of the ‘doom and gloom’ attitude and empower yourself to deal with workplace stigma.Read More →
Four days before Orlando da Silva became president of the Ontario Bar Association this month he heard the news that comedic genius Robin Williams had taken his own life. “I imagined Robin Williams alone in his room, what went through his mind,” da Silva told TorStar News Service this week. “I can understand the thinking, I can understand the emotions.” The new OBA president has also lived with the torment of depression, the sense of bone-deep worthlessness and lacerating self-disgust. He came close, in fact, to taking his own life.Read More →
BELLEVILLE – Michael Teasdale never thought about killing himself. But he did feel like curling up in a corner and letting life roll over him until it flattened him out of existence. The Stirling man and Loyalist College student was just one of the walkers in Wednesday’s Defeat Depression at the school, aimed at raising awareness of mental illness.Read More →
To some, anxiety is a taboo term. To one student, it was seven letters that defined her life. At the age of 12, second-year Ryerson journalism student Emily Aubé was diagnosed with panic and generalized anxiety disorder. Both conditions put her through great stress and pressure growing up. “In high school, there were no resources that helped me and I felt very much ashamed of my disorder in fear of being labeled as ‘mental’ or ‘crazy,’” Aubé said.Read More →
Kendra Fisher, mental health advocate and former member of Team Canada’s Hockey program, speaks about the frustration in getting help.Read More →
MEDIA RELEASE: APRIL 29, 2014 Canadian singer-songwriter and internationally recognized humanitarian Bruce Cockburn, is lending his voice to suicide prevention by partnering with the Collateral Damage Project. The Order of Canada recipient is releasing a video calling for a dialogue on suicide. To view the video, go to www.leftbehindbysuicide.org “I’m very pleased to be able to offer my support to the vital work of the Collateral Damage Project. I urge everyone who cares about their fellow human beings to do the same” says Bruce Cockburn. “Not talking about it isn’t working.”Read More →