Possibly major mental health-related project on the horizon

Following the success of the Sept. 25 You Matter project, the Medicine Hat and District Health Foundation is waiting for approval on a half million dollar fundraising project for mental health support and initiatives involving themselves and Alberta Health Services.

While details are limited at this time, Heather Bach, executive director at the Health Foundation said recently there is a need for more mental health initiatives in the area.

Bach is waiting for Alberta Health Services (AHS) approval to go ahead on a large mental health-based project for southeast Alberta in the near future and which are specifics will be released as soon as they are available.

“Going for a larger fundraising campaign to impact mental health in Medicine Hat so what that means is that it will impact our in-patient unit; it will impact our recovery centre,” explains Bach. “it will impact a little bit of our youth programming…, does it mean more counsellors? I don’t have that capacity, but I can make sure they are in comfortable environment that they have the proper medical equipment on site for them.”

She doesn’t have an exact timeframe of when this will be approved, but the 11-year veteran of the Foundation says there is a lot of excitement of this project.

“It is on the table; it is going to probably be about around $500,000 to raise money for, so I am really excited and they were really excited too that we came forward,” explained Bach. She says normally AHS comes to them with what they need for funding. This time the idea was suggested to them and there is a collaboration going.on

“Getting it funded is the strategic picture. …(Normally protocol-wise) kinda what happens is that AHS identifies what their priorities are, what their top needs are and then they comes to us, kind of like a granting process basically saying this is our priorities, this is what we need funded, why we needed funded, they sell to us, our board decides if it fits within our mission meets what our donors ask for and ask for every little dream and every want but our sole goal is what AHS’s needs are.”

The projects that the Health Foundation generate revenue for are “largely driven by AHS,” so both parties have to be very versatile. Bach says health care needs change so rapidly, almost within six months the priorities generally will change. Bach says the Foundation have “to be nimble and change think in short term pieces.”

Hence the delay in announcing the details is the dynamics and the long term implications of what they are doing will be useful now and foreseeable future.

“What we are working out is that what we raise money for is put to work right away and not a waste in two years time,” explains Bach. “AHS does do their homework and they redoing their strategic planning and that is what we are waiting to have bigger conversations about.”

Mental health has been getting a lot of attention recently, both in awareness and with the tension the socioeconomic climate is experiencing. There is more of a demand for access to mental health as the economy and society in itself is in the middle of an upheaval.

“We have all been forced to evaluate our own mental health because of the current environment; everyone has been trying to reduce the stigma for years but I think this year, COVID has forced us to address it and look at our own (selves), “explains Bach. “I think the people who had mental health concerns all of a sudden we’re having them because of COVID. It was an opportunity for us all to be candid about it and work in our own backyards. It sorta pushed us in that direction, maybe a little faster than normally what we would’ve gone.

“It’s not difficult to get community support; what’s difficult is that AHS is having trouble identifying what priorities are because they are changing so fast it is harder them to say this is what we need, oh no, this… no it is very ‘revolving door’. That’s the bigger obstacle. I am in the process now of having a larger conversation regarding mental health, let’s stop talking small scale, I think we have just always talked little stuff. No, let’s start talk about the big picture and how can we make a bigger impact. Maybe it takes us a year to raise all the money, maybe it takes two, let’s talk about what needs to be raised and how can we make this bigger impact. We are starting to have bigger conversations.”

The You Matter project took place near the end of September. The event, which was also heavily supported by RBC, had the mantra of “You can’t be brave if you can never get hurt, just like you can’t be strong if you never ask for help” had local coffee saw local downtown independent coffee shops donate proceeds from coffee sold as well as an oil change business donate proceeds from oil changes. The Health Foundation would then distribute the raised money for different projects.

Bach said it went well from a financial standpoint but she was happier of the subsequent offshoot benefits.

“I am a fundraiser and people assume I see success as money but I don’t see success as money. I see success as the conversations. People were comfortable talking about mental health. It was easy to talk about it. The people who rallied behind it, I think that was the true success,” explained Bach.

“The stigma is starting to slowly go away. It is a topic people are starting to become more comfortable discussing it. I think it tis various things. We are all just starting to talk about it more. Having people brave enough to step forward and have the conversations, the conversation is part of it.”

There is a problem within the economy about enough people being able to pay for mental health services. For those who have coverage, it is okay, but there are many people who don’t have medical coverage for mental health support and just cannot afford it.

The suggestion was made that the Foundation raise money to pay for counselling costs.

“I actually asked (AHS) that question: ‘Should we fund more counsellors? What if we gave you more operational dollars to bring more people in, they see the gap but they don’t see the value in giving them that money, they need to own that and they need to fix that gap and that doesn’t mean donor dollars should fix the gap but their system should fix that gap and I wish I understood mental health better myself and I don’’t mean mental health itself but the system of mental health because it is so diverse. I mean health care is diverse on it’s own, mental health is even worse. It is being delivered bu so many different facets by so many different organizations. It is hard to wrap your head around where the gap is.

Last year the Medicine Hat & District Health Foundation raised $666,600 to help improve heath care in our region.