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Time to work on your outside voice! Get ready to Get Loud this May 1-7 for the 66th annual CMHA Mental Health Week.

The Canadian Mental Health Association is asking Canadians to join us to GET LOUD for mental health. To GET LOUD means speaking out against the discrimination and stigma directed at people with mental illnesses. It means taking action and using your voice to raise awareness and build support for those around you and for yourself.

This toolkit will help you GET LOUD for mental health. In it you will find six ways to GET LOUD, fact sheets, activities and sample messages and graphics to share through social media.

For community event listings and more ways to GET LOUD, visit www.mentalhealthweek.ca.

CMHA Mental Health Week Toolkit for BC

Fact sheets, posters and postcards

• CMHA Mental Health Week fact sheet
• CMHA Mental Health Week poster
• CMHA Mental Health Week postcard
• b4stage4 infographic poster

Social media graphics
 

Social Activation (selfie card)

Website banners

Email tag

Vancouver, B.C. – It seems there is a lot more uncertainty in the world today: government leaders around the globe divide opinions, concerns of terrorism are on the rise, and bigger policy changes are happening in many Western countries. It’s on the news, across social media platforms, in conversations with family, friends, and co-workers. The more we tune in, the more we notice even minor issues becoming amplified until every single comment can feel like another step towards catastrophe. As a result, some people today say that they look to the future with a sense of unease and uncertainty.

“Living life on the edge of catastrophe is a very effective way to feel anxious, stressed, and overwhelmed,” says Sarah Hamid-Balma, Director of Mental Health Promotion at the Canadian Mental Health Association’s (CMHA) BC Division. “For those who want to take action, it can be hard to see exactly how to respond effectively when so many changes are happening at national levels. This only adds to experiences of powerlessness, hopelessness, or uncertainty.”

CMHA BC offers five tips on finding hope and taking a step back to look at the bigger picture.

Take action on factors or variables you do control. “Uncertainty is not helplessness. You may not be able to change outcomes or predict the future on a larger scale, but there may still be pieces you can control,” says Hamid-Balma. For example, you can’t predict or control a natural disaster like an earthquake. An unhelpful response is to do nothing but worry about the possibility. An empowering response is to assemble an emergency kit for your home, make a plan with your family, and educate yourself on earthquake safety.

Think critically and check the facts—even when you agree with the message. Just because it looks like news or calls itself news doesn’t mean it really is news. Many messages are meant to appeal to emotions rather than facts. Critical thinking skills—like looking at the author and the evidence behind the message—can help you evaluate claims and separate opinions, rumours, and fake news from factual news.

Your needs come first. If you have a hard time prioritizing your own care, consider disconnecting from social media, turning off the news, setting your phone aside, or scheduling self-care for a specific period of time each day. Remember that you can contribute or help others most effectively when you are taking care of yourself.

A little radical acceptance can go a long way. “There will always be uncertainty, upsetting or scary stories in the news, hurtful comments, and conflicting opinions. Getting angry or upset hurts you, but it doesn’t actually change whatever angered or upset you,” says Hamid-Balma. Holding onto that anger or fear only traps you in the past. Instead, acknowledge that it happened and the feelings it evoked, acknowledge that you can’t change the past or other people, and acknowledge what you might be able to do now. Acceptance is also one feature of mindfulness, a skill anyone can practice to live more fully in the present moment.

Choose your battles wisely. Recognize when investing time and energy is helpful and when it can be harmful. You probably won’t change someone’s mind arguing on social media, for example. “A more likely outcome is that you will walk away feeling angry or upset,” says Hamid-Balma.

For more tips and resources on living well despite uncertainty, see CMHA’s full resource at www.heretohelp.bc.ca/uncertainty.

About CMHA
Founded in 1918, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is the most established, most extensive community mental health organization in Canada. Through a presence in hundreds of neighbourhoods across every province, CMHA provides advocacy and resources that help to prevent mental health problems and illnesses, support recovery and resilience, and enable all Canadians to flourish and thrive. Visit the CMHA BC website at www.cmha.bc.ca.

Media Contact:
Lorna Allen
Communications Coordinator – Media, CMHA BC Division
P: 604-688-3234 ext. 6326
E: lorna.allen@cmha.bc.ca

Vancouver, B.C. – Today, at the Healthy Minds Healthy Campuses Summit in Vancouver, TELUS announced the donation of its new iOS mindfulness app, thinkFull, to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) BC Division. thinkFull is a stress management app aimed at improving the mental health of young adults by helping them monitor and develop coping strategies to manage stress levels.

The app provides personalized mental wellness coaching, allowing people to track their stress levels over time and tap into a rich library of tips for relieving stress, solving problems and living well. Information is customized to meet a user’s specific needs based on usage patterns and the app acts as both a resource and a repository – users rate their anxiety levels from one to seven and write accompanying journal entries that can be kept private or reviewed and discussed with a mental health professional.

“Statistics show that 15 to 24-year-olds currently have the highest rates of mood and anxiety disorders of all age groups – with approximately 11 per cent experiencing depression at some point in their lives,” said Bev Gutray, CEO of the CMHA BC Division. “We are delighted to add thinkFull to our arsenal of resources to promote positive mental health and are thankful to TELUS for this generous donation.”

“This generation are technologically savvy and spend hours each day on their smartphones, so supporting them with an innovative and intuitive app makes sense,” Gutray continued. “We are certain that thinkFull will be of great benefit to our Healthy Minds Healthy Campuses and other community members to help build greater resiliency and tackle the stressful situations and challenges they face during their studies and beyond.”

Developed in partnership with the CMHA and mental health non-profit Mind Your Mind, thinkFull was the result of TELUS’ first Social Enterprise Competition – a unique initiative to harness the entrepreneurial spirit of the company’s team members challenging them to develop a product or service to help improve the health and wellness of Canadians.

“Through the use of innovative technology, together we have the power and privilege to help Canadians live healthier and happier lives,” said Jill Schnarr, VP of Community Investment at TELUS, “As one of the original content providers to our thinkFull app, it was an honour to gift the CMHA with this intuitive resource so that more youth who are struggling with mental health issues across the country will have the support they need, right at their fingertips.”

Find out more about thinkFull by watching this video, and download the iOS app in the app store.

About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T, NYSE: TU) is Canada’s fastest-growing national telecommunications company, with $12.8 billion of annual revenue and 12.7 million subscriber connections, including 8.6 million wireless subscribers, 1.7 million high-speed Internet subscribers, 1.4 million residential network access lines and more than a million TELUS TV customers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video. TELUS is Canada’s largest health care IT provider, and TELUS International delivers business process solutions around the globe.

In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and our retirees have contributed more than $482 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered the equivalent of more than a million days of service to local communities since 2000. TELUS’ twelve Canadian community boards and five International boards have led the company’s support of grassroots charities and have contributed more than $60 million in support of 5,595 local charitable projects, enriching the lives of more than 2 million children and youth annually. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition. As reflected in our Corporate Social Responsibility Report, our commitment to sustainability is inspired by nature and aims to create a healthier future for all. For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.

About CMHA
Founded in 1918, the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) is the most established, most extensive community mental health organization in Canada. Through a presence in hundreds of neighbourhoods across every province, CMHA provides advocacy and resources that help to prevent mental health problems and illnesses, support recovery and resilience, and enable all Canadians to flourish and thrive. Visit the CMHA BC website at www.cmha.bc.ca.

Notes to editor:

• The donation announcement will be made at 2 p.m. PST on April 4, 2017 at the Healthy Minds Healthy Campuses Summit 2017
• Address: Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 W Hastings Street, Vancouver (Seymour Street Courtyard Entrance)
• For further information on Summit 2017, please visit: http://bit.ly/2ovSA8i
• Social media: Twitter – @CMHABC, @TELUS, @TELUSHealth
  Facebook – @CMHABCDIVISION

Media Contact
For all media enquiries and interview requests:
Lorna Allen, Communications Coordinator – Media, CMHA BC Division
P: 604-688-3234 ext. 6326
C: 778-835-2778
E: lorna.allen@cmha.bc.ca

Jill Yetman
TELUS Social and Media Relations
416-992-2639
Jill.yetman@telus.com

The Canadian Mental Health Association BC Division (CMHA BC) and the British Columbia Municipal Safety Association (BCMSA) have partnered to offer a suite of workplace mental health awareness and training courses to BCMSA members across the province.

CMHA has adapted three courses to meet the needs of local governments.

Safe and Sound: Building and Sustaining a Psychologically Safe and Healthy Workplace will provide guidance to supervisors, leaders, and occupational health and safety committee members and help them understand how they can contribute to, and advocate for, a psychologically safe workplace.

Responding with Respect – On the Front Line is aimed at front line workers and will teach them how to navigate challenging behaviour from clients or customers who may be experiencing a mental illness.

Awareness of Mental Health is a customized training workshop designed to increase resiliency of workers, and help them become more comfortable talking about mental health.

“We at CMHA are proud to partner with BCMSA to offer these valuable workshops to municipalities throughout British Columbia,” says Julia Kaisla, Director of Community Engagement at CMHA BC. “Providing training to workers at all levels, whether to help them manage their own mental health, to help them support colleagues or direct reports, or to better respond to the public, is key to creating a safe and healthy workplace.”

“In the last few years, we have become more and more aware of the issue of psychological health and safety in the workplace and it is an issue that has moved up the agenda for businesses and local government organizations alike,” says Cathy Cook, Executive Director, BCMSA. “BCMSA is dedicated to offering a wide variety of health and safety courses and we believe these three cost-effective and accessible workshops, specifically tailored to our members’ needs, will help create a stronger, more resilient, more educated workforce that is better equipped to support healthier municipal workplaces”.

The issue of workplace mental health in Canada has increasingly come in to focus over the last decade with a growing recognition within business and industry that providing a psychologically healthy and safe working environment is beneficial to both organizations and their employees. Mental illness takes a personal toll on individuals and also leads to losses in productivity through injuries, absenteeism, presenteeism and disability costs.

These positive attitudinal changes to workplace mental health in British Columbia have significantly gained momentum since July 2012 when WorkSafeBC took steps to expand compensation to include diagnosed mental disorders.

The following January the National Standard of Canada for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace was launched, the first standard on psychological health and safety of its kind in the world. Developed by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group) and the Bureau de normalisation du Québec (BNQ), the Standard is a voluntary set of guidelines, tools and resources focused on promoting employees’ psychological health and preventing psychological harm due to workplace factors.

Today, workplaces across the country are getting serious about improving psychological health and safety in the workplace. They are contributing resources and are seeking external expertise to ensure their workplace is robust and resilient, and ready for the future’s many challenges.

About CMHA
CMHA is Canada’s most established mental health charity and the nation-wide leader and champion for mental health. CMHA helps people access the resources they need to maintain and improve mental health, build resilience, and support recovery from mental illness. Each year in BC alone, CMHA serves more than 100,000 people all across the province.

About BC Municipal Safety Association
The central purpose of the BCMSA is to improve worker health and safety through the sharing of knowledge and resources within local government. The BCMSA delivers many training and education programs throughout the province and strives to be the health and safety resource of choice.

Media Contact
Lorna Allen, Communications Coordinator – Media, CMHA BC Division
P: 604-688-3234 ext. 6326
C: 778-835-2778
E: lorna.allen@cmha.bc.ca

BC Budget: $140 million in targeted investment offers valuable opportunity to act #b4stage4

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) welcomes the Province’s commitment to mental health and addictions care following yesterday’s announcement of a $140 million package of measures aimed at improving child and youth mental health in BC schools, homes, and communities.

This follows Friday’s announcement that the BC Government has signed on to the federal Health Accord, securing $655 million dollars for mental health and addictions care over the next ten years.

“Recent budgets have not emphasized mental health and addictions as much as Budget 2017,” says CMHA BC’s policy director Jonny Morris. It is encouraging to see a 20% increase in the Ministry of Children and Family Development’s (MCFD) line item for child and youth mental health services. This is an important incremental step to the boost in funding needed to close the 70% treatment gap for BC children living with mental health and addiction problems.”

Budget 2017 does place an emphasis on prevention, early intervention, and enhanced treatment supports in community for young people living with mental health and addiction problems, with significant investments in the Ministry of Children and Family Development, the Canadian Mental Health Association in BC, FamilySmart (formerly the FORCE), Foundry and other allied partners to move the needle in this area. This is an important step towards a #b4stage4 system of care where mental health and addictions care can stand on a more equal footing with physical health care.

Over 2000 people and six organizations from across BC have signed on to the #b4stage4 manifesto, released by CMHA BC in October 2016. This manifesto makes recommendations for actions across five areas to improve BC’s mental health and addictions system. Budget 2017 does make progress across some of these areas and there is room for continued improvement.

#b4stage4 Manifesto Action Areas:

1. Let’s focus investments in the prevention of mental health and addiction problems and early intervention when symptoms first arise: More families will now benefit from Confident Parents: Thriving Kids, a parent training program delivered by phone. More families can “ask once – and get help fast.” This helps more kids from developing more serious behavioural problems, meaning more will stay in school, and less will become involved with the justice system. Further, effective and early care for depression is a critical ingredient in our efforts to prevent suicide. Young people (15+) with early symptoms of low mood, stress, or anxiety can now access Bounce Back, a coaching service using cognitive behavioural therapy.
2. Let’s build an accessible, publicly funded addictions treatment system – The investment in 28 new highly specialized treatment beds is an important step towards building an accessible, publicly funded addictions treatment system for youth. Further, the announced $65 million to house adults living with mental health and substance use problems is a critical intervention and key in supporting recovery. But there is a long road ahead – we need to keep building a standardized, compassionate, evidence-based system of care for all battling substance use problems – reducing the need for our current crisis response – while reorienting toward prevention and early intervention.
3. Let’s strengthen recovery closer to home in community – Foundry is an excellent example of community-centred, integrated, youth-friendly mental health and substance use care. This investment will double the current number of centres up to 11 across BC with a plan to reach 1,200 – 2,500 young people per year, supporting more young people in community. Funding for post-secondary student mental health is also welcome, and will hopefully build upon the work of Healthy Minds|Healthy Campuses, supporting students in their campus communities. Budget 2017 can do better when it comes to the disability income assistance rate. The $50 per month increase is welcome investment but does not keep up with continued increases in the cost of living in BC. Indexing the Persons with Disability Benefit against the cost of living or looking at an enhanced renters’ grant would have gone a long way for this vulnerable BC population.
4. Let’s improve crisis care – Increasing the number of community mental health and substance use clinicians to 120 at the Ministry of Children and Family Development is another important step to reduce the 70% treatment gap for children and youth. Demand for services continues to outstrip supply, and 70% of young people with mental health and addiction problems currently do not receive services. And the $1.5M in supports for First Nations communities is a positive step – but more investment in this area – especially prevention – is much needed in helping more First Nation communities move out of a crisis responses towards sustained wellbeing. Sustained investments in prevention and early intervention should divert people from needing crisis care over time.
5. Let’s lead change in mental health and addictions – building a #b4stage4 system for mental health and addictions in our province will take continued leadership, planning, and a map forward. It is encouraging that mental health and addictions has climbed up the priority list in Budget 2017. It is morally imperative and economically smart to ensure mental health and addictions continue to be a priority for future budgets and actual spending.

To learn more about CMHA BC’s b4stage4 campaign, please visit www.b4stage4.ca.

About the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA)
CMHA is Canada’s most established mental health charity and the nation-wide leader and champion for mental health. CMHA helps people access the resources they need to maintain and improve mental health, build resilience, and support recovery from mental illness. Each year in BC alone, CMHA serves more than 100,000 people all across the province. For mental health and addiction information and resources visit www.cmha.bc.ca

Media Contact:
Lorna Allen
Communications Coordinator – Media, CMHA BC Division
P: 604-688-3234 ext. 6326
E: lorna.allen@cmha.bc.ca