Sometimes, I like to imagine a world where mental health can be talked about as freely as the weather, or say, physical health. That’s the thought I had when I opened up on Facebook about some of my mental illness struggles, and that’s the thought I had all day on Monday, March 16, as I gathered with 250 other youth, teachers, counsellors, and leaders at the Youth Mental Health Opening Minds Summit, hosted at the University of Calgary’s MacEwan Hall.
The event was put on by CMHA Calgary and MHCC, and we were blessed with Mike Morrison (of Mike’s Bloggity Blog) as the host for the day!
After introductions by CMHA Calgary and MHCC representatives, and a video about the initial Headstrong conference in Ontario back in the fall, Sheldon Kennedy came on stage to the podium. He shared his story of how sexual abuse as a young hockey player led him into mental chaos. In fact, he said that people have been talking about their mental health, but in a different way… By that he meant alcohol, skipping school, cutting, isolation, and suicide. It was quite unnerving to hear that throughout stays in prison, 3 locked mental hospitals, and 8 long-term treatment centres, he was never asked “what’s happened to you?”. He left us with the message of “There is hope” and “We’re better together”.
A breakout session posed each of the four groups with the question: What are some of the words society uses to describe those with mental illness? Answers, of course, included “over-dramatic”, “freak”, and “dangerous”. The next question? How do those words make us feel? Alone, broken, lost, hurt, rejected… in summary, not fun stuff. Then came the fact: 1 in 5 develop mental illness. So, we were finally asked What are the words society SHOULD use? These words were the meaningful ones: human, unique, hopefully, strong, survivor, treatable, hurting, inspired, brave. It was a bit difficult to hear the speaker who shared her story to our breakout group, but luckily, after “nutrition break” (which included DELICIOUS smoothies), we heard from all four speakers.
Brett Rothery, Kaitlin Hrudey, Paige, and Dheny started by summarizing their stories of mental illness, and then acted as a four-person panel that answered questions from both Mike Morrison and everyone attending. Some questions included:
- How do you cope? Brett said he relies on humour, Deny said she looks to social support (i.e. friends), Paige said she helps others, and Kaitlin says she talks to her family and her psychologist.
- How can teachers be helpful? In Brett’s response, he highlighted the importance of teachers having connections with their students, rather than their role simply being “turn to pg. 34”.
- Peer pressure? Kaitlin’s response said it plain and simple: be yourself. Brett proposed the idea that “not succumbing to peer pressure is cooler than being cool”.
- Should I feel guilty about being a “burden” by asking for help? Paige said that services/people wouldn’t be listening to you if they didn’t genuinely want to help you.
Kaitlin’s parents were in attendance, and someone asked them how they suggest parents help their struggling child. Kelly Hrudey‘s response? Listen. Pay attention. The signs are there.
The moment of the day that I actually was most moved by was when Brett Rothery came over at the start of lunch and talked personally to me and the other three from my school (two peers and our counsellor). We talked about the difference between sadness and clinical depression, and the effect of “coming out” with your mental health story. Both Brett and I had similar experiences in that sharing our stories with people around us was met with a positive, supportive response.
Queen Elizabeth students started the afternoon with accounts of the fall Headstrong conference in Ontario, and one student shared her struggles with mental illness, suicide of a loved one, and bullying. We were given an opportunity to ask them questions, and some profound responses included “It’s an illness. It is not something you choose” (re: what needs to be taught about mental illness) and their answer regarding the biggest barrier in taking action? Time (a.k.a. school).
Brett Rothery, the Grade 12 Crescent Heights student known to many as “the kid who did that thing on Twitter”, talked about how brainstorming back in the fall turned into the #CHHSLetsTalk campaign, which raised $23,000 for CMHA through 5 cents per tweet. Yet Brett made it clear that the money was the cherry on top. The biggest success was opening the dialogue about mental health. Social media today has the capability to reach far and fast. As Brett said, “[social media] doesn’t just have to be cat videos”.
The day ended with another round of breakout groups, where we brainstormed answers to the
questions “How has stigma stopped us from partnering for change?” and then “What steps can we take to ‘partner for change’ and build a community of acceptance and inclusion at school?”.
With that, my words for you are: Let’s be the ones to end stigma. Let’s be the ones to make mental health a conversation. Let’s realize: if you’ve got a brain, you can get sick. So now I ask you: what can YOU do to stand up for mental health?
I don’t mean to self-promote, but…. check out my twitter @JuliaPorsche where you’ll find my accounts from throughout the day! Also check out the day’s hashtag, #headstrongYYC on twitter.