World Bipolar Day aims to build awareness and eliminate social stigma
World Bipolar Day -- an initiative of the Asian Network of Bipolar Disorder, the International Bipolar Foundation, and the International Society for Bipolar Disorders -- will be celebrated each year on March 30th, the birthday of Vincent Van Gogh, who was posthumously...
Coronavirus Q & A: Mental health expert on how to cope during COVID-19 pandemic
Psychologist and mental health expert Dr. Rehman Abdulrehman joined staff at The Toronto Star on March 20th to answer questions about how to cope during the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Abdulrehman is a consulting and clinical psychologist with specialist experience in...
In this time of uncertainty, Vancouver Island Crisis Society is here to help
Our Crisis Services (Line, Chat, and Text) remain available to support you.Please refer coronavirus questions and inquiries by dialling 811. We have informed all participants that our Community Education workshops and our Volunteer Training program have been either...
Coronavirus is taking a toll on people’s mental health, but there are ways to cope
Millions of people in North America watched helplessly as the coronavirus epidemic rolled over first Asia and then Europe. And when that inevitable tide hit North America, fear and anxiety levels across the continent shot through the roof. And as those anxiety levels...
Here’s our VIMHS Currents newsletter for March 2020
Schizophrenia...Treatment and recovery...The importance of insight in recovery from mental illness...Inpatient care for people with serious mental illness... Acquired brain injury and opioid overdose... VIMHS updates... Read our March 2020 newsletter online here.
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VIMHS NEWS
Here’s our VIMHS Currents newsletter for March 2020
Schizophrenia...Treatment and recovery...The importance of insight in recovery from mental illness...Inpatient care for people with serious mental illness... Acquired brain injury and opioid overdose... VIMHS updates... Read our March 2020 newsletter online here.
At first glance, schizophrenia may seem like a great puzzle
Its causes are still uncertain; its symptoms, variable. Striking most often in the 16 to 30 year age group, affecting an estimated one person in a hundred, it is youth’s greatest disabler. But if it is a puzzle, it’s one that is slowly being solved. New pieces are...
Vancouver Island Mental Health Society is hiring!
Casual Tenant Support Worker, Sobering and Assessment Centre Worker, and Mental Health Worker positions are available at Vancouver Island Mental Health Society. Tenant Support Worker (Casual), Nanaimo The Tenant Support Worker (TSW) provides assistance and tenancy...
MEDIA SCAN
VIMHS will open a new 23-unit affordable housing building in Nanaimo this October
An affordable housing project under construction near downtown [Nanaimo] will do good things for those who eventually live there, says Nanaimo’s MLA [Sheila Malcolmson]. Construction is currently underway on a three-storey residential building at 285 Rosehill St.,...
UBC president who overcame mental health crisis determined to help Canadian students
"You just spiral." University of British Columbia president Santa J. Ono was afraid to speak out about his mental illness; now he’s a champion for mental health on campus. Ono appeared on CBC Radio's The Current. I always remember how I felt. I always remember being...
Effective stigma reduction interventions in the opioid crisis
A recent Mental Health Commission of Canada research report offers key recommendations and a new scale to help governments and organizations address opioid-related stigma and evaluate stigma-reduction interventions. The 18-month research project included a scoping...
PEOPLE FIRST MEDIA
The psychiatric inpatient experience: A parent’s perspective
The B.C. Schizophrenia Society focused on issues related to the psychiatric inpatient experience—along with the experiences of parents when their children are hospitalized—at its October 2019 annual general meeting. A panel discussion called “Inpatient Care for People...
Potential legal barriers to psychiatric treatment
Emerging legal developments may threaten patients’ access to the involuntary treatment that some patients need. This includes describing the challenge to the BC Mental Health Act made under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the most recent Ombudsperson’s Report that...
Is there a shortage of psychiatric beds in British Columbia?
The psychiatric inpatient experience can be very difficult both for patients and their families. But a lack of acute psychiatric beds in British Columbia hospitals has also led to increasing concern. The word acute refers to an illness that quickly becomes very...
