Mental health support:
vital but not glamourous
Mental illness is something most people would rather not think about.
Those experiencing symptoms of mental illness tend to ignore it and hope it will go away, reluctant to even seek the treatment that they need because of the stigma that it can carry. That stigma affects not only those who are experiencing mental illness, but also the programs and people that work to help them because funding can be difficult to acquire for such undervalued causes. Mental illness remains relatively obscure, while more glamourous causes, many of which affect fewer people, attract throngs of supporters and huge financial contributions.
That struggle for funding is one that Dave Nelson, executive director of the Saskatchewan Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), knows well. “No one is saying that these [other] causes are not immensely important,” said Nelson, “but it’s difficult because there are lots of non-profits around, and it’s really not a very level playing field. Generally, with mental illness fundraising you have a bit of an uphill climb.”
One of the main province-wide programs that is presented by the Saskatchewan CMHA, Friends for Life, is run on a part-time basis because funding is limited. Corporate sponsorships have bolstered the program in the past, but the organization now has to rely on its own fundraising efforts to keep the program operating. “It’s been a long-term program, but we’re always looking for funding for it,” said Nelson.
Friends for Life is primarily a suicide prevention program that is designed to provide awareness and knowledge to educators, students and the general public of suicidal symptoms and situations, and provide skills that allow them to support the suicidal person.
“One of the things we know is that we don’t want the usual, ‘never-talkabout-it-or-it-will-happen’ kind of mentality to be out there,” said Nelson. “You do need to talk about it in a reasonable way, not a sensationalist way, and make people aware of what to watch for and what to do if they feel a loved a loved one or an acquaintance may be very depressed and having self-harm kind of thoughts.”
CMHA Moose Jaw branch director Donna Bowyer is the director of Friends for Life, and makes hundreds of visits each year to present the program to schools, workplaces and communities in Saskatchewan, providing knowledge that helps change attitudes about mental illness.
Because suicide prevention does not necessarily mean talking about suicide, and can include any information or action that improves the social, emotional and mental health of an individual, Bowyer works in schools with educators to help them cultivate students’ self-esteem and provides information on how to reduce bullying. She tailors the presentations to make them appropriate for the age and development of the students involved.
The Friends for Life program is also relevant in workplaces, since 20 to 25 per cent of employees are affected by mental health issues every year. Bowyer provides strategies to help lower stress and establish a positive, team-like atmosphere in the workplace by providing employers, managers and employees with tools that they can use to help them work together and inspire and motivate one another.
Bowyer’s work with communities involved in the Friends for Life program includes helping them to become alert to the signs of suicide by having people trained to be able to identify, question, connect and intervene when someone has thoughts of suicide. Other local CMHA mental health initiatives include a problem gambling community program which is provided through a partnership with Saskatchewan Health.
All of the CMHA’s programs are designed to help the organization reach its goal of providing information and strategies so that people will feel empowered to be more responsive to their own mental health needs, as well as those of their families, friends and colleagues.
Working with groups and individuals to prevent and treat mental illnesses is an important part of the mandate of the CMHA, but the work of the non-profit organization with government in establishing policies that will improve service for persons with mental illness is also crucial. “We try and improve ‘systems’ kind of things for people,” said Nelson, “because that way you can impact thousands of people as opposed to dozens.”
He said that concerns that need to be addressed for those with mental illness include, “an adequate roof over your head, adequate diet, some way to have recreation and some friends, and so on, because, for people with mental illness, one of the first things that usually happens is you start to self-isolate and, because of the stigma, a lot of people kind of drop you out of their circle.”
Income support is a vital aspect of assisting those with mental health. “We have done a lot of work around this new SAID program [Saskatchewan Assured Income for Disabilities],
Generally, with mental illness fundraising you have a bit of an
uphill climb.”
Dave Nelson
executive director of the Saskatchewan Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association
said Nelson. “The government has done a lot of really good work on that, where it worked with a group of agencies, including ours, and organizations around the province to develop a much better, separate-from-welfare kind of system. They have also plugged in another couple of hundred dollars for people to live on, which makes a tremendous difference when you’re trying to live on $800 including your rent.”
He said the main goal of the program is to offer those who are experiencing a serious disability a system that is separate from social assistance, allowing them to shed the associated stigma. “It’s not for everybody with a disability,” said Nelson. “It’s for those with the most longterm and enduring disability — the impact of disability has to be at a fairly high level.”
Despite his ongoing quest to have mental illness receive the same respect as other conditions, Nelson is optimistic regarding the future of care for the people he represents. “The good news is that, with the mental health commission and other [initiatives], it’s getting better. It’s coming out of the closet or as we say, it is ‘emerging into light’ but it’s a very, very slow process and there’s still a lot of stigma out there.”