Covenant House Vancouver

Clara Hughes is teaming up again with Bell's Let’s Talk Campaign to raise money for and awareness of mental illness in Canada.

I had the pleasure of hearing Clara speak at an announcement Bell was making in relation to their gift of $250,000 to the Streetohome Foundation as part of Covenant House Vancouver’s Semi-Independent Housing Program. She has battled serious depression in her life and is determined to help shed the stigma still associated with this mental illness.  I applaud her courage to speak out and to lend her name and energy to such an important cause.

In 2010, Bell announced the launch of an unprecedented multi-year charitable program dedicated to the promotion and support of mental health across Canada. Over the next several years, this multi-million dollar initiative will support a wide range of programs that will enhance awareness, understanding and treatment of mental illness and promote access to care and research across the country.

So if you are on the Bell network, please talk and text a lot on February 8^th as Bell will donate 5 cents towards mental health programs for every call or text made that day.

Please watch the video below made in memory of Jack Windeler (www.TheJackProject.org). This is an amazing project aimed at reducing stigma around mental health issues and educating people on how to look for signs of mental health distress in young people. At Covenant House Vancouver we are lucky to have an amazing group of counselors and mental health clinicians to support our young people that have mental health concerns, and many of them do.

1 in 5 young adults will face a diagnosable mental health problem. – Canadian Mental Health Association

In Canada, suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 15-24. For each completed suicide it is estimated that there are 100 attempts. – Statistics Canada

It is up to all of us to talk openly about mental health, when the stigma is reduced more people can reach out and get the help that they need.

 

I wanted to share an interesting article from The Tyee about mental health screening for teens. The piece is written by Alan Cassels and looks at the pros and cons of screening teens for mental illness. It is worth a read and if you are interesting in learning more about how we work with youth with mental health concerns check out the mental health section on our blog.

Do you think teens should be screen early for mental illness? Feel free to share your thoughts with us. 

This story is about Lily, a 20 year old who has been a long time crystal meth user. The damages of crystal meth can be far reaching and permanent. Lily had been in hospital for three week, displaying psychosis; and although she was clearly mentally ill, we were uncertain as to whether or not this was organic (biological) or drug induced psychosis. The Outreach Team visited her consistently in the hospital, attempting to work closely with the hospital staff to collaborate on a suitable discharge plan. She was released to another shelter, but unfortunately two days later, she was hit by a car and admitted back into the hospital.

Our Outreach Team worked closely with the hospital staff to support Lily in her recovery. The hospital helped Lily to reconnect with her parents and she agreed to repatriate home to Manitoba. We picked Lily up at the hospital, helped her pack her bags, call her parents, and then drove her down to the airport. We coordinated with the airline, to have her escorted on and off the plane and to meet her connecting flight.

Lily called us a few days later to tell us she arrived home safely, thanking us for all our support.

We have our fingers crossed that her mental health issues were only drug related, and that she will see full recovery. 

Crystal Meth

I’ve come across two interesting articles on mental health this week:  one that explores a mother’s frustration with the “system” and the “parents to blame game” and one that talks about the financial impact mental illness has on  businesses in Canada.  Each article explores mentall illness from a completely different point of view. I find it fascinating that this topic illicits both strong emotional and economic discussions.  Have a read and let me know what you think.

The Mental Health Commission of Canada is researching the effects of mental health and homelessness. Their current project “At Home/Chez Soi”, the largest research project of its kind in the world, is underway in five cities across Canada.

The At Home/Chez Soi website states “the project is based on a Housing First approach (The hypothesis is that once a person is given a place to live, he/she can then better concentrate on other personal issues.). A total of 2285 homeless people living with a mental illness will participate. 1,325 people from that group will be given a place to live, and will be offered services to assist them over the course of the initiative. The remaining participants will receive the regular services that are currently available in their cities.”

The Vancouver portion of the At Home/Chez Soi research project will focus on people with addictions and mental health issues. The property where the 4 years of research will be taking place is the Bosman Hotel Community. This building just recently reopened and has the capacity to house and support 100 people.

One of Vancouver's most popular bloggers, Raul Pacheco, and his friend and follow blogger, Isabella Mori, organize "Mental Health Camp". Raul has written a great piece about mental health and how every one of us can suffer from a mental illness of some kind.

This year Mental Health Camp is focusing on breaking the silence of this pervasive and often debilitating condition. I am so pleased that Raul and Isabella take on this project; the more people learn about mental illness the better. I think of our young people and how many of them have serious mental illness concerns and how their lives could/would be better if a) they had been diagnosed earlier and b) their families understood the symptoms of their illness. Left untreated, the symptoms of bi-polar and schizophrenia, for example, are often "masked" with self-medicating -anything to make the "voices stop" or to numb the pain.

Mental illness is a mystery to a lot of people unless you've experienced it, or know someone who has. A few years ago, I had a bout of depression and at the time I was so worried about what "people would think" - would my employer think less of me? I sought treatment but I struggled with telling people, especially my parents: i was embarrassed and felt like a failure.

Do you have or have you had a mental illness?

Kevin Takahashi and Alex Lau from RBC Financial presented Krista Thompson, Executive Director of Covenant House Vancouver with a donation of $40,000 to help fund Covenant House's Mental Health Program.

This donation of $40,000 will help to ensure that our Mental Health program will reamin open and ready to assist the 1,900 homeless young people that will walk through our doors this year. Each year, our understanding of the root causes of homelessness becomes clearer and we are able create programs like this, to better serve our young people, thanks to our caring friends such as the RBC Foundation.

Covenant House Vancouver and the Inner City Youth Mental Health Project (ICYMHP) were recently recognized nationally by the National Eva's Innovation Award, generously sponsored by CIBC. Covenant House Vancouver was chosen as one of three award winners out of 31 applications received from across Canada.

ICYMHP provides youth with access to immediate on-site treatment for mental illness and is coordinated by two in-house mental health clinicians from Covenant House and delivered by a team of six psychiatrists from St. Paul's Hospital. The psychiatric team provides service in both Covenant House locations, with a case load that includes approximately half of all youth in the shelter at any given time. Young people in the mental health project are also supported by other Covenant House programs, including case management, the transitional housing program, drug and alcohol counselling, and life-skills training.

ICYMHP is innovative in that psychiatric services are being made available to homeless youth where and when they need them. The project offers the opportunity to proactively address mental illness among homeless youth and avoid hospitalization. In diagnosing mental illness and helping youth follow through with a treatment plan, ICYMHP is key to improving youth's readiness to access and manage housing for themselves.

Thank you to Eva's Initiative's and CIBC for recognizing us in this way!

Pictured here are (left to right) Covenant House's mental health clinician Tracy Brown, Eva's Initiatives Rachel Gray, Tristan Klassen, Covenant House Development Officer and Mark Simoes from CIBC.

I want to share with you a wonderful article I stumbled upon about a doctor who is teaching standup comedy as a way to help and empower people with mental health issues. The Article is by Fabiola Carletti and is called "A Funny Thing Happen to Me on the Way to Mental Illness". Please click here to learn about tackling mental illness in a whole new way.