Mental Illness Awareness Week is an annual national public education campaign designed to help open the eyes of Canadians to the reality of mental illness. It has been observed every year since 1992 and is coordinated by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health in cooperation with all its member organizations and many other supporters across Canada.
One of the awareness week’s major initiatives is the Faces of Mental Illness campaign, a national outreach campaign featuring the stories of Canadians living in recovery from mental illness. Those recovery stories are shared with hundreds of organizations across Canada to raise awareness and end the stigma associated with mental illness. Mental Illness Awareness Week is held every October; in 2020 it was held from October 4th to 10th.
People First Radio shared audio from several of those stories and you can listen below. The stories can also be found on YouTube if you’d like to view the videos.