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CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 1
Once upon a time, in a land far away – Gander, NL to be exact - living a very successful life – a home, a family, an education, a career – there was a princess. A very determined princess, she fought bravely each and every day against the evil symptoms and consequences of Mental Illness (MI). But alas, as most fairy tales go, the princess was no match for the evil-doer, and the princess found herself in a very precarious position. Locked away in a dark dungeon, isolated from family and friends, confused and disoriented – with no one to hear her plea - the princess lived a dreary existence indeed. The life she knew – her independence, her sense of self-worth, her purpose in life, her hope for the future – all dashed in the blink of an eye. Her only glimmer for the future was something that would support her in vanquishing the evil illness... and maybe a dream of a ‘Prince Charming’. Quite the fairy tale indeed, or is it? My reality – as is the reality for many living with mental illness - is that tomorrow, my life as I live it today could cease to exist. It’s already happened once before. In 2002, having been diagnosed with a mental illness, my life as I knew it dissolved. While leading a great life with my children and partner, having secured a positive career, I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder. Despite all the good in my life, I was clinically depressed. I found myself in a whirlwind of changes in my life that I felt I had little or no control over.
It was a very unnerving experience – losing my home, my friends, my career, my identity, my life. Within months of being at the top of my game, I felt I was at the bottom of the barrel. Fortunately, through lots of love from family and friends, support from our health care system, and a lot of positivity and determination, I created my recovery journey. I found resources such as Eastern Health Day programs, and supports through CHANNAL’s Peer Support groups. I developed strategies to recognize when the evil MI is raising its head, and I have wellness tools such as painting and meditation that will support me when it returns. I’ve learned to realize that while my illness is here to stay, I can certainly work to control it. In fact, my periods of unwell have diminished; something I attribute to the sheer knowledge that I will always maintain control over my own life. So far, my recovery journey has been an adventure, with lots of ups and downs, with a few side paths. But is has – and continues to ultimately lead me in a positive direction. During this journey, I finally found myself graduating Memorial University with a degree that was 11 years in the making that allowed me to do something I adore – work in the Mental Health Field. So, years later, I have now been restored to my previous, magical princess-self with a home, a family, an education and a very fulfilling career. While the evil-doer has not been vanquished, the princess has a box full of tools and supports that will keep MI at bay. And yes, I’ve even found my prince charming – but that’s a story for another time!
Paula Corcoran Acting Executive Director Provincial Peer Support Coordinator [email protected]
Volume 6, Issue 1; March 2013
21202022013
I n T h i s I s s u e : R e g i o n a l U p d a t e s 2 W e ’ r e T a l k i n g A b o u t I t 5 T h e A r t o f R e c o v e r y 6 F e a t u r e d B o o k 7 F e a t u r e d A l b u m 7 P h a r m a c a r e 8 H i g h l i g h t i n g C o m m u n i t y O r g a n i z a - t i o n s 9 C o n t a c t U s 9
A Newfoundland & Labrador Fairy tale
CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 2
It’s been a busy winter in the St. John’s
Region. With spring just around the corner,
things are going great. Peer Groups are
continuing to grow with new members
joining us all the time. Freestyle Fridays are
still rockin’ and rollin’. Len and Max are
meeting weekly to learn new songs to keep
the music fresh and keep us entertained.
Check out our calendar on the website if
you’re interested in attending any of our
groups or events.
Our thirteen week pilot project with Eastern
Health providing peer support at the
Waterford Hospital has ended its’ pilot
phase. It’s been a very rewarding experience
and the feedback has been great. Our work
at the Waterford Hospital will continue and
expand to include two more units!
Coming up this spring:
Mindfulness and Mental Health – Presented by
Andrew Safer, Paul March, and Michelle Pike.
March 18, 2013 @ CHANNAL St. John’s.
Register by contacting [email protected]
Defeat Depression – a national anti-stigma
campaign will be taking place on May 26,
2013. Check out the website or contact the
St. John’s office for more info on how you are
able to be involved.
A Journey Forward – Our popular wellness
action planning workshop will run in May
2013. Contact the St. John’s office for details.
If you haven’t been by our office we would love to
see you!! Our office hours are Monday to Friday 11
am to 4 pm.
Victoria Dyke
St. John’s Regional Peer Support
Ed Sawdon, a St. John’s peer, received the Cecilia
Carroll Award for Independent Living at the Independent Living Resource Centre's International Day for Persons with Disabilities ceremony, December 3rd, 2012. ILRC's Kathy Hawkins said: "The nomination for this
award was put forward to the ILRC for your work in
promoting equal opportunities for people with
disabilities specifically advocating for improvements in
various government programs & initiatives to improve
the quality of life for everyone."
Regional Updates
CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 3
It’s almost time to “spring ahead” into a new
season, and CHANNAL Central is ready to hop
along too! We’ve had some great activities
over the last couple of months and are
excited to share them with you!
First and foremost, we had the opportunity to
volunteer with Central Housing and
Homelessness Network to serve up a
delicious pancake breakfast to the people of
our community! All proceeds from The
Pancake Breakfast went to support Central
Housing and Homelessness Network and The
Salvation Army so they can continue to
provide much needed support in Grand Falls
Windsor.
Secondly, we
had an
invitation to
present at a
youth
information
program called FYI: Straight Talk for Teens
offered by Y2C in partnership with the
Exploits Community Center and the Child and
Youth Care Worker students of Keyin College.
This is the first time CHANNAL has provided a
youth education presentation – with an
attendance of 10 youth and around 20
volunteers and students, the response was
amazing! The teens were attentive and
offered much insight - I can say there were
some natural peer supporters in the making!
The closing challenge I gave the youth was
the make a “wrap”, song, or poem about
recovery . . . The results were so great I got
consent to share them with you.
Group 1:
If you have hope & respect that’s 2 parts of recovery,
the road may be hard but you’ll make a discovery.
The self-direction may be hard to find,
But everything’s easy when you set your mind.
~ Swiggles & Catb’y
Group 2: (to the tune of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
This is a “wrap” about how my life got flipped upside
round and if you’d like to take minute and sit right
there and I’ll tell you how I became
the coolest kid of Wind-zah!
I was feeling kinda down, I was feelin’ low,
But I found a group that gave me my glow.
We’re all here from riches to flannel,
the best group I ever found was CHANNAL!
Group 3:
Feel like you need a positive attitude?
Talk about yourself.
Who are you?
I’m a sister, encourager, friend, niece, student,
granddaughter, momma to be, and listener.
Remind yourself who and what you are.
When writing this I felt encouraged and happy.
I’m so thankful to know everything I listed is ME!
I’m human for a reason.
~ Brittany
There are exciting things to come for Central; from
workshops to networking we look forward to sharing
in recovery with you! Stop by the office at 50 High
Street for a chat or for group on Wednesday
evenings at 6 - I look forward to seeing you!
Heidi Anderson
GFW Regional Peer Support
CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 4
Volunteer Search
We are still in search of volunteers across the province! If you or
someone you know is interested in volunteering for us please contact us
or drop by the office to fill out volunteer profile! Interested individuals
should contact 1(855)753-2560 or [email protected]. We look forward
to making you a part of our CHANNAL team!
Spring is the time for growth and renewal, so with
that being said, I am extremely honored to
introduce myself as the newest member of the
CHANNAL team for the west coast of the island,
based in Stephenville! We are located at 143
Main Street, Stephenville, and have been quite
busy setting up the office and networking in the
community.
I’m very pleased to say that the welcome and
support that CHANNAL has received on the west
coast has been overwhelming! I’m sure that
CHANNAL will provide valuable support to the
region as well as being a community partner to
other organizations and the public in general.
Because this is a transition time for me personally,
and a time of growth for CHANNAL in the area,
my time is being spent with staff
orientation, training opportunities, and laying the
groundwork for peer support to be offered within the
very near future.
I’d like to thank the CHANNAL board and staff for being so
welcoming and supportive in my first few weeks, as I
travel on my road to recovery.
Looking forward to sharing with you as we travel
together….
Bonnie Rotchford
Stephenville Peer Support
CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 5
In October, 2012, the Consumers’ Health
Awareness Network Newfoundland and Labrador
(CHANNAL) launched a workplace initiative
designed to get conversations about mental
health issues started in workplaces throughout
Newfoundland and Labrador.
The We’re Talkin’ About It Employer’s Toolkit provides employers with supporting tools as well as
a full length discussion guide to facilitate a 60-minute conversation about mental
health issues in the workplace. The discussion guide consists of questions, possible answers and
recommended timeframes so that any individual in an organization who has the ability to lead a group and
communicate non-judgmentally can lead the discussion.
In October, six workplaces in the province piloted the toolkit. The survey results were tremendous:
• 82% said the discussion raised their own personal awareness of mental health issues in the workplace • 73% said it raised their awareness of supports that are available, including workplace EAP programs • 91% said the conversation generated interest in future mental health initiatives in their workplaces - very encouraging! To get your copy of CHANNAL’s We’re Talkin’ About It, call Max at CHANNAL - 753-2560 or toll free at 1-
855-753-2560. Alternatively, you can e-mail Max at [email protected]
Membership Meeting
CHANNAL’s Quarterly Membership Meeting
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
From 7 to 9 p.m.
All regional offices will be open at this time to
accommodate their members.
For further information and for call-in
information, please contact
The Provincial Office:
1-855-753-2560
CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 6
Jerry, a peer from the central region continues
to use his creative gift as a wellness tool. As
pictured here, he started a new venture
making walking sticks that are about 2.5 to 3
feet. The stick head is first carved to shape
then the animal of choice, in this case a
puffin, is painted in fine detail with acrylics.
Next, the bottom of the stick is painted
black and the whole stick is them sealed
with several layers of varnish for protection
and weather proofing. The final touch is a
rubber foot attached to the base for grip.
The Art of Recovery
Have a name to match the newsletter’s new
look? We’ll be giving a prize to the person who
comes up with the most original name for our
newsletter. Please email your entries to:
[email protected] or give them to your
Regional Peer Support!
Contest!
CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 7
From being sectioned to singing on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London: how singer-songwriter Emily Maguire learned to pick up the pieces and ‘start over again’. While singer-songwriter Emily Maguire was on tour in the UK in 2010 and her single ‘I’d Rather Be’ was being played on BBC Radio 2 every day, no-one knew that behind the scenes she was having a breakdown: “I’d put my make-up on and I’d go and do these gigs, smile at everyone and pretend everything was okay, and then the next day the crisis team would have to come round ‘cos I was falling apart at the seams.” After years of keeping it secret, Emily revealed that she had bipolar disorder. In her book ‘Start Over Again’, she told for the first time the real story behind her songs… her journeys into psychosis and depression and the hope and poetic beauty that emerge from the other side. She describes how she was locked up in a mental hospital in London but
was allowed to keep her guitar on the acute ward where, aside from singing “endless Bob Marley songs in the smoking room” with the other patients, she wrote a song called ‘Falling On My Feet’. Four years later, she stood on her own on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in London and sang it to 5,000 people. The book tells Emily’s extraordinary story: her journey from mental hospital wards to concert hall stages via a shack on a goat farm in the Australian bush. It is a collection of her poetry, prose, song-lyrics and some very personal diary entries, providing a rare and unique insight into the creativity of a manic depressive mind. Having survived several breakdowns, Emily says she wants to convey a positive side to the illness. As she puts it, “If you can manage bipolar disorder, it can be enabling, not disabling. It’s like a blessing as well as a curse. I wouldn’t write songs the way I do if I didn’t have it.” ‘Start Over Again’ is available from Amazon. Find out more at www.emilymaguire.com
Emily Maguire is an acclaimed singer-songwriter and classically trained multi-
instrumentalist with 4 albums to her name. She has toured with major acts including
American legend Don McLean, Dennis Locorriere, and Eric Bibb. Best-known for her
strong, thought-provoking lyrics and "supremely expressive vocals” (Rock’n’Reel
Magazine), Emily’s songs are played regularly on BBC Radio 2 in the UK and radio
stations around the world. She recorded her first 2 albums out in the Australian bush
where she spent 4 years living on a goat farm in a shack made from recycled wood, tin
and potato sacks.
The title track of her second album ‘Keep Walking’ is an uplifting song about persevering through the highs and lows
of mental illness: “I wrote ‘Keep Walking’ during a long, dark winter when I was stuck in London waiting for a visa
back to Australia. It was a hard time but out of that came this song about persevering and being determined to keep
going no matter how low I felt at times. I wanted to say that as long as you keep going, something will happen, things
will change for the better.” The song was playlisted on BBC Radio 2, the largest radio station in the UK.
‘Keep Walking’ has recently been chosen by the Mood Disorders Society of Canada as the campaign anthem song
for their Defeat Depression campaign. The album itself won critical acclaim from the British and Australian press and
was followed by her third album ‘Believer’ which included the single ‘I’d Rather Be’, another positive affirmation of
living with mental illness which was also playlisted on BBC Radio 2. In 2011 Emily did some gigs in psychiatric
hospitals in the UK, singing songs, reading extracts from her book ‘Start Over Again’ and talking about her own
experiences of dealing with bipolar disorder to staff, carers and service users. In 2012 she recorded her 4th studio
album which is due for release in 2013. Emily’s first 3 albums are all available from Amazon and to download from
iTunes. Find out more at www.emilymaguire.com
Featured Book
Featured Album
CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 8
During the course of the last year, I’ve corresponded with many significant
government officials concerning the National Pharmaceutical Strategy and the proposed National Pharmacare Program.
The Harper Conservative Government has abandoned the National Pharmaceuticals Strategy as far as I can tell, for as Alberta's Deputy Health Minister Marcia Nelson said: “It has long been recognized that there is a need for a national drug-coverage program in Canada. The National Pharmaceutical Strategy was under development when, in 2009, the provincial and territorial Ministers of Health were notified that the Government of Canada would no longer participate in the discussions of such a program.”
Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said: “Primary responsibility for matters related to the administration and delivery of health services, including drug coverage, falls within the purview of the provinces and territories.” Instead of taking a national leadership role on Pharmacare, our federal government has transferred federal tax dollars, through the Canada Health Transfer, to the provinces and territories, so each could set up their own public drug plan. Along with these 13 distinct drug plans, Ottawa helps fund and administer a federal plan through Health Canada for groups such as Canada’s First Nations & Inuit, Veterans, Canadian Armed Forces Personnel, RCMP, and Sponsored Refugees. I feel the decision to cut back most refugees health benefits, in the Interim Federal Health Program, is both short sighted and inhumane; as Federal NDP Opposition Leader, Thomas Mulcair wrote: “Like you,
New Democrats believe that it is unconscionable that the Harper government would deny refugees the basic right of healthcare. The recent concession by the Conservatives to allow one group – government assisted refugees – to be entitled benefits is too little, too late. The large majority of refugees will still go uncovered.” In the end, I believe the provinces and territories will have high hospitalization, treatment and drug costs as the Harper government neglects their International and National obligations to assist all Refugees.
It would make economic sense to have one National Pharmacare Program, instead of the 14 federal, provincial and territorial public drug plans we currently have in Canada. I have been advocating for such a program and since 2003, Newfoundland & Labrador has made some modest improvements in the Newfoundland & Labrador Prescription Drug Program (NLPDP). However, some people, who still do not qualify for drug coverage, end up slipping through the cracks of our provincial social safety net. According to Federal NDP Health Critic, Libby Davies: “The federal government must work with the provinces to create healthcare reforms that ensure that Canadians continue to receive quality healthcare, and that this standard of care is guaranteed across this country. Canadians deserve equal access to affordable medications…” And in Closing I share what MP Ryan Cleary said: “Make no mistake, my party and I believe in a national pharmacare program whereby pharmaceuticals are available to all Canadians, the same as Medicare.”
Ed Sawdon, St. John’s, NL.
Pharmacare Update
CHANNAL, Vol. 6, Issue 1 9
Mood Disorders Society of Canada (MDSC) is a national, not-for-profit, consumer-driven, voluntary health charity that is committed to ensuring the voices of consumers, family members and caregivers are heard on issues relating to mental health and mental illness; and in particular with regard to depression, bipolar illness and other associated mood disorders. MDSC was formally launched and incorporated in 2001 with the overall objective to provide people with mood disorders with a strong, cohesive voice at the national level to improve access to treatment, inform research, shape program development and government policies to improve the quality of life for people affected by mood disorders.
Mood Disorders Society of Canada is taking on Depression and Stigma in a big way! MDSC rolled out a Canada-wide campaign
called Defeat Depression in 2012. Mental Health organizations and volunteers across the country organized local walks, runs, rides and other events. The events in the inaugural year were a huge success. The campaign for 2013 is even bigger!
The purpose of the campaign is to make it known that having depression or any mood disorder is not a character flaw, it is not a sign of weakness; it is an illness, the very same as any physical illness and should be addressed with the same level of understanding, acceptance and compassion. The Defeat Depression events will promote dialogue about mental illness and will encourage persons who are experiencing depression or mood disorders to reach out for help. The campaign also raises funds that are greatly needed by local mental health "Host" organizations to assist them in providing local supports.
Visit the campaign website, today to find an event location near you, and to learn how you can join and help make a difference in your community. The majority of events will be held on or around May 26, 2013. Together, we will make a real difference! www.defeatdepression.ca
Highlighting Community Organizations
Provincial Office 284 LeMarchant Road
St. John’s, NL A1E 1R2
1-855-753-2560
[email protected] www.channal.ca
