Mental Health: Get Loud for Dignity

In the last few years, in part thanks to Bell Let's Talk Day and the initiatives surrounding it, there is more and more talk about mental health, and the stigma surrounding it is beginning to be broken down. For years mental health and the lack of it has been shoved into the closet, something we don't talk about, and certainly something we do not admit to. 

Mental Health has been a part of life as far back as I can remember. My mother was a mental health nurse who worked primarily in the community on behalf of a larger hospital. When we were younger, she oversaw outpatient programs and community counselling for a regional psychiatric hospital. One of the groups that she worked with was for schizophrenics and every year there would be a friends and family baseball game against a group from another community. Not many ten year olds choose to spend a summer afternoon with the mentally ill, but it was just a part of our lives and those in the group were regular people, unique in their own way. 

Perhaps it was growing up in a small town where most people knew each other, knew each others families and what everyone was doing, or maybe it was because of my father being a local doctor and my mother a mental health counsellor, but growing up I was on a first name basis with many people with mental health issues. I think it has given me an awareness and a passion for issues around mental health. It also probably helped that my mom has been a board member of the local Canadian Mental Health Association. 

Despite all of this, mental health remained a taboo topic in many of my circles. I remember as a late teen sitting around one night talking with two friends I had known since preschool and when two of the three of us admitted to having had thoughts of suicide at one time or another, the third friend was utterly shocked. Suicide, along with depression and anxiety were just something you never talked about, let alone admitted to. Thankfully things are changing and we all have a role to play in that by talking about mental health in the same way we talk about other diseases, to normalize and remove the stigma. When we stop treating mental health as a weakness to be overcome, we give people permission to admit it and to seek the help they need to deal with it.  

Mental Health is a justice issue, as we seek fairness and dignity for all. Often those who are suffering from mental health issues struggle to find their voice, they can be marginalized and so I believer that we as Christians, need to stand with them and to advocate on their behalf because in all probability every one of us will be touched by mental illness in our lives, whether it is ourselves or someone we love. When we treat mental health and illness like any other health issue, we are fulfilling our baptismal promises to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbour as ourself and respecting the dignity of every human being. We are all God's children, and just as we have broken down other barriers, let us commit to breaking down the barriers that surround mental health. 

This year the theme of The Canadian Mental Health Association's Mental Health Awareness week (May 1-7, 2017) is Get Loud, an invitation to speak up and speak out. Let us talk about mental health, let us tear down stigmas and let us advocate for better mental health resources and services for all of God's beloved children.

Bell Let's Talk

Get Loud - Canadian Mental Health Week