Leaving a legacy
Friends make and sell dreamcatchers to help raise awareness of PTSD
Shana MacDougall says when her brother died, it seemed at first like it was all a bad dream.
Now she’s hoping a project she is working on with her friend, Meghan Beals, will help other people, like her brother, who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
MacDougall’s brother, Scott MacDougall, was in the military and served in Afghanistan where he was injured when his light armoured vehicle hit an explosive device in 2010.
Shana said he died in April after an accidental overdose due to his PTSD medication. Scott was 29 when he died. “It’s crushed my family,” she said.
The pair is calling their project Dreams2Heal with a goal of raising awareness of PTSD and giving people a platform to talk about it so they can share how it has affected their lives and communities.
Beals said that during a visit, Shana’s eight-year-old daughter asked her if she would make a dreamcatcher because Scott always had one and it helped him with the nightmares he had because of his PTSD.
Soon after, Beals was on a placement in a First Nation community in Ontario where an elder taught her how to make dreamcatchers.
Now Shana and Beals are making the dreamcatchers and selling them through the Tema Conter Memorial Trust’s website, which is an organization that helps emergency, public safety and military personnel who struggle with PTSD.
The woman said people don’t discuss PTSD the way they do other health problems, like a heart attack.
“After they have a heart attack, they talk about that as an everyday occurrence, but people don’t talk about suicide or mental health as an everyday … health problem,” Beals said.
Beals, who is Mi’kmaq, also smudges the completed dreamcatchers to cleanse them, using shells and sage an elder gave her during her work placement.
Remembering her brother, Shana said even though he was in a lot of pain, Scott would reach out to help others.
“He had a heart of gold,” she said.
As Scott struggled with PTSD, people knew, and he started to pull away, Shana said.
“It was almost like he was ashamed of it, like he would try to hide that he was hurting.”
Shana said Scott was getting counselling.
“I think it just gets to a point where you get to a place that it’s so dark that you just don’t know how to find the light again.”
So far, the women have finished about 100 of the dreamcatchers, which they are selling for $20 through tema.ca.
Beals said she isn’t sure yet what they will do with the money raised, but some of it will go to the Tema Conter Memorial Trust.
Shana said she would also like to see her brother’s cottage turned into a retreat for others.
“That’s a way for Scott’s legacy to live on as well,” she said.
Beals and Shana will share stories of people’s experiences with PTSD on the Dreams2Heal Instagram account at www.instagram.com/dreams2heal.