Lack of addictions treatment for youth needs urgent fix
As British Columbia heads into the fifth year of a public health emergency due to the high number of opioid overdose deaths, Vancouver Island still doesn’t have a single residential-treatment for youth. Province-wide, the number of youth beds and services lag demand....
Supportive housing is essential for Shane’s ongoing recovery from mental illness
Serious mental illnesses include diagnoses that typically involve losing touch with reality or experiencing delusion (referred to as psychosis) or diagnoses requiring high levels of care, either of which may require hospital treatment. Two of the most common severe...
We lost our son to suicide. Here’s how we survived.
On Sept. 7, 2017, my 31st wedding anniversary, a date marked by happy memories turned tragic. That was when I learned that my 23-year-old son, Garrett, had died by suicide. Two-and-a-half years later, the news that brought me to my knees rings in my memory as if it...
Grieving suicide is tough, but we need to be honest about how much it hurts
During the first few months after my daughter’s suicide, I learned that people could be put into one of three categories. The first group was made up of people who were genuinely there for me, not surprisingly these were family and close friends. Showing up with a...
Bell Let’s Talk Day is Wednesday, January 29, 2020
On Bell Let’s Talk Day, Wednesday January 29, 2020, Bell will donate more towards mental health initiatives in Canada by contributing 5¢ for every applicable text, call, tweet, social media video view and use of its Facebook frame or Snapchat filter. In...
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VIMHS NEWS
VIMHS receives generous donation from the 100+ Women Who Care Mid-Island group
The 100+ Women Who Care Mid-Island philanthropy group selected Vancouver Island Mental Health Society as the recipient of $12,200 in donations at their Wednesday November 27th (2019) meeting. VIMHS executive director Taryn O'Flanagan was at the meeting November...
16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence — Nov. 25 to Dec. 10
The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. It was started by activists at...
It’s National Addictions Awareness Week from November 25th to December 1st
Canada's National Addictions Awareness Week (NAAW) highlights issues and solutions to help address alcohol- and other drug-related harm. It provides an opportunity for Canadians to learn more about prevention, to talk about treatment and recovery, and to bring forward...
MEDIA SCAN
We lost our son to suicide. Here’s how we survived.
On Sept. 7, 2017, my 31st wedding anniversary, a date marked by happy memories turned tragic. That was when I learned that my 23-year-old son, Garrett, had died by suicide. Two-and-a-half years later, the news that brought me to my knees rings in my memory as if it...
Grieving suicide is tough, but we need to be honest about how much it hurts
During the first few months after my daughter’s suicide, I learned that people could be put into one of three categories. The first group was made up of people who were genuinely there for me, not surprisingly these were family and close friends. Showing up with a...
Children and teens might hide their mental-health struggles. But adults can’t look away
“What can I do to help my child?” As child and youth psychiatrists, this is a question we often hear from parents sitting across from us in our offices. Whether their child is struggling with anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, substance abuse or another mental...
PEOPLE FIRST MEDIA
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...
What needs to be done to help overdose survivors living with brain damage?
The province of British Columbia is reportedly using “every possible available tool” to curb opioid overdose deaths—and thousands of deaths have been averted since introducing several strategies. But what is happening to those many thousands of citizens who are...
The impacts of climate change and climate disasters on mental health
AUDIO | The 2018 spring flooding in New Brunswick devastated communities along the Saint John River. Thousands of people were displaced from their homes during the flood event. And then spring flooding struck again in 2019. We actually don't have any good research out...
