(Published on the CMHA website) There are many schools of thought on mental health. So, at the Canadian Mental Health Association, we waded into everything from western psychology to Indigenous knowledge, and here is what we found: when we look at various descriptions of mental health, the overlaps are striking. We found that, while feeling well means different things to different people, some things might actually apply to all of us: in order to thrive, we all need a good sense of self, and we all need purpose, contribution, hope, resilience and belonging. We’ve condensed that knowledge into an informal list that you can use to check your own mental health. (You can find the sources we consulted below). It’s not a scientific tool, or a way to diagnose yourself. It’s just one way to check in with yourself about your mental health, and maybe guide you on how to support and improve it.  Read each statement, and consider whether you “Agree” or “Disagree” with it. Your sens...

Helping children and youth cope with anxiety Noel Gregorowski, MSW and E. Jane Garland, MD, FRCPC Imagine: from therapist to junior knight trainer In the early 1990s, Dr. Jane Garland imagined adapting cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) to better serve anxious children. CBT is known to be effective for anxiety, but it can be difficult to motivate children to practise the essential skills. Inspired by one of her young patients, Dr. Garland developed a more playful model of CBT: training a junior knight in “taming worry dragons.” When the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Clinic was developed at BC Children’s Hospital in 1994, Dr. Garland teamed up with Dr. Sandra Clark, a child psychologist with expertise in CBT. Together, they developed these ideas into an engaging group program and training manual to help children and parents cope more effectively with anxiety. With funding from a Children’s Hospital Foundation Telethon grant, the first Taming Worry Dragons manual was publ...

Benji Miskuski (pictured above), who runs AdoreAquariums, has generously donated a fish tank, and pledged to give 25% of his profits, to SIC. We interviewed him to find out more. Why did you pick South Island Centre? Because of my own struggles with mental health and a need to serve the community. The counselling here is second to none. And there’s a fee sliding scale, so everybody gets to have it. An aquarium is an enlightened donation - the attention it draws and the peaceful sound it makes. You knew this? When I was 22, I got a Groupon for adults with developmental disabilities, and we got into environmental therapy. The effects   were unbelievable, how it calmed people down - myself included. And when I got sick with PTSD, it was one of the best therapies. Is that why you became a fishy guy? One of the reasons, definitely. I wanted to be able to spread fish everywhere. It’s kinda like the universal divider. The skinhead punk and the g...

by Sarah Petrescu (published in the Times Colonist, November 30, 2017) There has been a surge in the number of Victoria teens showing up at emergency departments in recent months after taking what they believed to be the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, health officials say. “We are seeing more frequent presentations of young people who are over-sedated or who have overdosed on Xanax,” said Dr. Chris Morrow, a clinical division head and emergency doctor at Royal Jubilee and Victoria General Hospitals. A Victoria pharmacy, STS Pain, posted this picture of a Xanax pill that tested positive for fentanyl to social media in June. Photograph By Via Twitter “They usually come by ambulance as an overdose or have come struggling with some other issue and this comes up,” Morrow said. “They appear profoundly sedated, sleep or comatose. … When [Xanax is] used with alcohol, they could overdose and die.” Island Health said warning signs of Xanax abuse include drowsiness, periods of exte...

A patron looks at a self portrait by Vincent van Gogh at a 2014 exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. While the famous painter may have been mentally ill, there is no proof that people who live with mental illness are innately more creative than non-mentally ill people, Julie Anne Pattee writes. By JULIE ANNE PATTEE (Printed in the Montreal Gazette, May 7, 2018) This is Mental Health Week, an annual event promoted by the Canadian Mental Health Association for more than six decades now.  In recent years, this and other mental health awareness campaigns have put a spotlight on the prejudices and false associations that surround mental illness. Sometimes, the stereotypes don’t seem all that harmful. An image that often comes to mind is of a musician, a poet or painter holed up in an attic somewhere, creating masterpieces while suffering from feverish delusions. It’s a scene we’ve seen countless times in movies. We all know the stories; Edgar Allan Poe, Lud...