Changing Directions, Changing Lives is the first mental health strategy for Canada. Its purpose is to help improve mental health and well-being for all people living in Canada and to create a mental health system that can truly meet the needs of people of all ages living with mental health problems and illnesses and their families. It was released on May 8, 2012.

The Globe and Mail (André Picard) reports that the strategy: calls for an immediate infusion of $4-billion annually for mental-health care; calls on employers to implement psychological health and safety standards to protect workers; says efforts to divert people with severe mental-health problems out of the justice system and into care need to be accelerated; and embraces a “housing first” philosophy to get homeless people suffering from mental illness off the streets.

But will governments provide the needed resources? And what roles do communities, charitable organizations, and individuals have to play in its implementation?

We speak with Howard Chodos, one of the authors of the strategy.

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Image: President and CEO of the Mental Health Commission of Canada Louise Bradley delivers remarks for the Launch of the National Mental Health Strategy For Canada in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 . By Sean Kilpatrick/CP

Nanaimo Women’s Centre, with the help of artists from the community, offered women and girls the opportunity to create art in a project called herArt. The purpose of the project was to build community connections—among and between girls and women—through access to art education and creative expression.

Workshops took place during the last weeks of April and into the beginning of May 2012. The Nanaimo Women’s Centre provided the materials, space, and participants, and local artists volunteered to give workshops using their own particular methods and approaches.

herArt concludes this weekend—on Saturday May 19—with a public exhibition and performances at Nanaimo Centre Stage.

We speak with Bonnie Catterson, who is helping a group of women write and stage an original play.

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Image: istockphoto

Just go to the “Become a Member” tab under “Join” button at the top of website or  go to http://www.columbiancentre.org/?page_id=141.

Social media and its implications for people with mental health issues

Social media, in the form of Facebook, Twitter, cell phones, and texting, etc. are sweeping through the world, much like a tsunami.  Thrashing about in this churning sea, many of us struggle to find our bearings.  Are we being herded around by social media, or are we in command of these new tools?  What does this mean for vulnerable people: are they being left behind, swept away into uncharted depths, or riding the wave?

Sherry Turkle, a professor at M.I.T., has described a radical change in the nature of social relationships, brought on by social media. She describes the change as a slide from full-bodied conversation to electronic connection. It might even be said that communities are being supplanted by networks. The result, Turkle remarks, is that we have “positioned ourselves in a way where we can end up feeling more alone, even as we’re taking actions that would suggest we’re more continually connected.”

According to research by the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project, text messaging is now the number one method for communicating among teenagers — and American teenagers are sending an average of 60 text messages a day. But teens aren’t the only social network users.  On a per-capita basis, Canada has the highest number of Facebook users in the world. The average Canadian has 225 “friends” on the social network, though recent studies from the University of Waterloo have shown that as many as half of our “friends” are people we don’t even really know.  Facebook, Twitter, texting, and blogging are the new connectors.

Child’s play?
“About 40 per cent of two- to four-year-olds (and 10 per cent of kids younger than that) have used a smart phone, tablet or video iPod, according to a new study by the non-profit group Common Sense Media,” Associated Press reports. “… There are thousands of apps targeted specifically to babies and toddlers – interactive games that name body parts, for example, or sing nursery rhymes. It has become commonplace to see little ones flicking through photos on their parents’ phones during church or playing games on a tablet during a bus, train or plane ride. … In fact, toy maker Fisher-Price has just released a new hard case for the iPhone and iPod touch, framed by a colourful rattle, which allows babies to play while promising protection from ‘dribbles, drool and unwanted call-making.’ ”   The Globe and Mail, November 1, 2011

You’re not alone: Social media as community

Social media can seem to decrease the isolation affecting particular groups or individuals. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) sponsored a study that examined how young adults with mental health conditions use social networking websites. The study found that individuals living with mental illnesses were more likely to use social networking to create a supportive community — rather than to strengthen an already existing one through socializing.

The vast majority of young people in the study believed that social networking reduces social isolation.

NAMI’s study also found that young adults living with mental illnesses expressed a preference for a social networking site that offers information on community integration, independent living and social skills, and overcoming social isolation. The finding was consistent with previous research:

. . . teens with mental health conditions use the Internet to find ways to cope or deal with their worries, unhappiness, or problems . . .websites focused on mental health issues increase knowledge and reduce stigma associated with mental health in young adults.

A study conducted in Australia by the mental health charity known as SANE found similarly positive results. People with mental illness were found not only to make considerable use of the Internet to manage their daily lives (finances, shopping, and connections to government agencies), but 73 per cent of the study participants also confirmed that using the Internet and associated social media played a valuable role in overcoming isolation and staying connected with others.

Keith Hampton, an associate professor at Rutgers University, wrote in The New York Times that “social media has made every relationship persistent and pervasive” and he declares that “a loss of close friends does not mean a loss of support.” Hampton believes that the constant feed of updates and photos from online social circles constitutes a “modern front porch.”

Hampton’s conclusion, from his own and others’ research, is that “neither living alone nor using social media is socially isolating.” But he also acknowledges that new social media tools are increasingly seen as responsible for a growing trend of social isolation and lack of intimacy — despite a lack of evidence to support it.

“We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Connectivity offers for many of us the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. We cannot get enough of each other…if we can have each other at a distance in amounts we can control.”    –Sherry Turkle

A poor imitation of the real world: Finding balance

Professor Turkle is a leader in critically analyzing the phenomenon of social media. Her book, Alone Together, is described as being only one of a long list of attacks on social media—and its perceived weaknesses and problems. Her thesis, an article in The Guardian says, is simple: “Technology is threatening to dominate our lives and make us less human. Under the illusion of allowing us to communicate better, it is actually isolating us from real human interactions in a cyber-reality that is a poor imitation of the real world.”

Columbian Centre’s Tom Grauman observes that “social media blinkers communication, reducing communication to a single channel. Lost in social media’s efficiency  and

immediacy are facial and body expressions, physical interaction, subtlety, mutually  experienced ambient influences (people, smells, surroundings), even shared food and drink. It is, by its own design, an impoverished medium for authentic exchange.”

Research findings demonstrating the rise of social media use among people with mental illness in Australia “have raised concern that social media could be replacing face-to-face contact for vulnerable groups,” according to Medical Observer. More than 60 per cent of people surveyed, who have had a diagnosis of a mental illness such as depression or anxiety, said they have no one they can call a best friend. And 40 per cent would have trouble finding someone to drive them to the doctor if they were sick.

The study, conducted by Mental Health New South Wales, showed that many who found it difficult to make new friends were turning to social media sites like Facebook to try to meet people. Researcher Nataly Bovopoulos stressed that it was important for people with mental illness to continue to try and make real-world friendships:

We found that people who reported enjoying close, empathetic, supportive and caring friendships, who like and are interested in people, and who enjoy interacting with others for their own sake had higher psychological wellbeing, greater resilience and lower psychological stress.

“I question what exactly people are ‘connecting’ to, when they access the internet and other social media,” muses Columbian Centre’s Mary Wallace, “given that many of these platforms are driven by pornography and marketing.  Connection, we should remember, is not automatically a good thing; any connection is a two-way street and I shudder to consider the scenarios of vulnerable populations, such as people with mental illness, being recruited by electronically-based predators.”

“Just because we grew up with the internet, we assume that the internet is all grown up. We tend to see what we have now as the technology in its maturity, that the way we live now with the internet is how we will live with it in the future. And that’s not true: with the internet, it is the very early days.”     –Sherry Turkle

Face your problems, don’t  Facebook them

Marc LeVine is vice-president of community outreach for The Center, a therapeutic mental health and addiction treatment program in New Jersey, which specializes in the treatment of co-occurring disorders. He’s also a social media expert. Marc states at the Therapy Soup blog that “we’re all waiting for the research that will show us the best ways to make use of Social Media in the treatment of mental illness and chemical addictions.”

LeVine thinks that the greatest benefit of social media to mental health communities will be the access to knowledge and training that clinicians have. He also believes online therapy is showing signs of being a tremendous boon to the mental health profession:

When used properly, social media opens new communication pathways for those who feel trapped and very much alone.  They can reach out for support from family and friends who are distant as well as others. They can learn more about their own illnesses from professionals and peers and they can also use the Web to send information to the services they depend on for treatment, shelter and food.  Several twenty-four hour hotlines are also available online and have been credited with saving people from suicide and accidental drug overdoses.

44-year-old Toronto police officer Scott Mills decided in 2007 that “if I was going to be a police officer in real life, I was going to be one online.” Mills has 5,000 friendson Facebook (in social media-speak, a “friend” is not necessarily more than a “contact”) and a wait list of 300. He told the Toronto Star that he monitors his own Facebook and Twitter feeds, intervening when he sees online bullying — and when he spots, or is alerted to, an alarming post about someone’s safety he will act. Mills notes that many adults have been shying away from forging relationships with young people online, but feels that the opposite is necessary.

Psychologist Susan Giurleo writes online at KevinMD.com (“social media’s leading  physician voice”) that social media is not only changing how we communicate, it’s also changing how we define what “relationship” is. She also predicts “positive opportunities at every turn” for mental health care in the social media world: professionals will collaborate more; the stigma and isolation of mental illness will lessen; increased demand for high quality mental health care; ability to offer robust aftercare and maintenance; and a greater ability to create treatment programs that clients want and need.

Amid the continuous developments in social media (Facebook application to tackle mental health stigma, Facebook as a mental health screening tool, Twitter help for mental illness and postpartum depression, to name a few) comes a study with a warning. A survey by Macmillan Cancer Support in the U.K. found that the average young adult has 237 Facebook friends — but only two that they could turn to for real support. The survey “also found that one in eight … admitted they did not have even a single person they considered to be a good enough friend to rely on, if life got very hard,” according to The Telegraph.

Whatever the social media’s drawbacks may be, for millions of people its charms are virtually irresistible.  Sherry Turkle says: “our iPhones light up our brains in the same places that love lights up our brains. We’re wanted. Somebody wants us, somebody needs us, somebody’s calling to us, somebody remembered us…This technology calls out to the most primitive and fragile parts of ourselves. It calls out to deep elements of our psyche.”

Notwithstanding social media’s flashing lights, it seems that when we have something intensely personal to share, the one or two people occupying our non-virtual space might turn out to be the most important.

Article by Kevin Midbo.

References

AlwaysSick.com, February 24, 2012. Twitter help for mental illness & postpartum depression. Available at: http://alwayssick.com/2012/02/24/twitter-help-for-mental-illness-postpartum-depression/

BetaNews.com, March 19, 2012. Friends don’t let friends overuse technology. Available at: http://betanews.com/newswire/2012/03/19/friends-dont-let-friends-overuse-technology/

Calgary Herald, January 8, 2012. Social media risks desensitizing us to others tragedies. Cached at: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:crVUSxTqACYJ:www2.canada.com/story.html%3Fid%3D5963463+%22in+the+video,+Mowry,+with+tears%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca

CBS News, March 19, 2012. Teens are sending 60 texts a day, study says. Available at: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-57400228-501465/teens-are-sending-60-texts-a-day-study-says/

Cooperative Research Centre for Young People (Australia), December 2010. Literature Review: The benefits of social networking services. PDF available here [automatic download].

CurtisSpitt.com.au, February 22, 2102. Cairns launch of new Facebook application to ‘change our minds’. Available at: http://www.curtispitt.com.au/2012/02/22/cairns-launch-of-new-facebook-application-to-%E2%80%98change-our-minds%E2%80%99/

KevinMD.com, n.d. How social media will change mental health care. Available at: http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2011/03/social-media-change-mental-health-care.html

MedicalObserver.com.au, October 14, 2010. Mentally ill teens rely on social media for support. Available at: http://www.medicalobserver.com.au/news/mentally-ill-teens-rely-on-social-media-for-support

National Post, March 25, 2012. Is social media harming our mental health, researchers wonder? Available at: http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/03/25/is-social-media-harming-our-mental-health-researchers-wonder/

Pew Research Center, June 16, 2011. Social networking sites and our lives. PDF available at: http://pewinternet.org/~/media/Files/Reports/2011/PIP%20-%20Social%20networking%20sites%20and%20our%20lives.pdf

ProbonoAustralia.com.au, March 7, 2012. Internet a vital connection for people with mental illness—report. Available at: http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2012/03/internet-vital-connection-people-mental-illness-report

Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Winter 2012. Young adults with mental health conditions and social networking websites: Seeking tools to build community. Available at: http://prj.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,10,15;journal,2,40;linkingpublicationresults,1:119989,1

Psychology Today, February 29, 2012. Facebook as a mental health screening tool? Available at: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/promoting-hope-preventing-suicide/201202/facebook-mental-health-screening-tool

Socialeyezer.com, March 12, 2012. How social media can help the elderly overcome isolation. Available at: http://socialeyezer.com/2012/03/12/how-social-media-can-help-the-elderly-overcome-isolation/

The Daily Mail, November 23, 2011. Daily stress is leading to a rise in the potential nightmare of ‘sleep texting’, expert claims. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2064703/Daily-stress-leading-rise-sleep-texting-expert-claims.html

The Guardian, January 22, 2011. Social networking under fresh attack as tide of cyber-scepticism sweeps U.S. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/22/social-networking-cyber-scepticism-twitter

The Hedgehog Review, Spring 2012. A conversation with Sherry Turkle. Available at: http://www.iasc-culture.org/THR/THR_article_2012_Spring_Nolan.php

The New York Times, August 10, 2011. For the plugged-in, too many choices. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/fashion/digitally-fatigued-networkers-try-new-sites-but-strategize-to-avoid-burnout.html

The New York Times, February 12, 2012. Social media as community. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/02/12/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-living-alone/social-media-as-community

The New York Times, February 23, 2012. Trying to find a cry of desperation amid the Facebook drama. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/us/facebook-posts-can-offer-clues-of-depression.html?pagewanted=all

The Telegraph, January 23, 2012. Facebook friends can’t be relied on in a crisis. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/9033161/Facebook-friends-cant-be-relied-on-in-a-crisis.html

Toronto Star, March 9, 2012. The cop on the social media beat. Available at: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1144142–the-cop-on-the-social-media-beat

Changing Directions, Changing Lives: Canada’s first mental health blueprint unveiled

Canada’s first strategy to improve the mental health of all Canadians was publicly released Tuesday May 8, 2012 by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (Commission) during Mental Health Week. Following extensive consultations with thousands of Canadians through regional dialogues, online surveys, roundtables on key topics, and discussion groups with stakeholders, Changing Directions, Changing Lives: The Mental Health Strategy for Canada will bring about real change for people from coast to coast to coast.

The Strategy focuses on improving mental health and well-being for all people living in Canada and on creating a mental health system that can truly meet the needs of people of all ages living with mental health problems and illnesses and their families.

Strategy a first for Canada

“We all have a stake. Mental health problems and illnesses affect us all – mother, father, child, friend, colleague. But the unfortunate power of stigma prevents the pain and costs of mental health problems and illnesses from receiving a level of attention and support other serious health issues do,” says Commission President and CEO Louise Bradley. “The launch of the Mental Health Strategy for Canada marks the first time that Canada has created a shared vision and set of priorities that will guide the efforts of the public and private sector, the service delivery sector and all Canadians to improve mental health outcomes.”

“Our government is proud to have established the Mental Health Commission of Canada, and recognizes the important achievements made by the Commission since it was created in 2007,” says the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health. “The human cost of mental health problems and illnesses is dramatic and has a significant impact on the health and the economy of our country. The work of the Commission is already shaping decision-making in Ottawa concerning health research and initiatives. I encourage my provincial and territorial colleagues, business leaders, and community leaders to review the Strategy, and look for opportunities to apply recommendations in areas of their own jurisdiction. I look forward to collaborating with all partners on these important issues.”

Recommendations for change

Changing Directions, Changing Lives draws on unprecedented input from thousands of Canadians and puts forward the best possible balance of different perspectives and will enable everyone to contribute to the improvement of mental health outcomes. It sets out recommendations for change that promise to improve quality of life for Canadians in every province and territory, grouping them into six key strategic directions:

On Wednesday May 2, 2912, Colliers International hosted the Second Annual Mid Island Charity Golf Tournament. All profits were directed to the Columbian Centre Society.

Despite the cloudy and windy day the event was a crowning success.

CCS would like to thank the golfers who attended and the many generous sponsors who supported the event.

Thanks to the Nanaimo Golf Club for so capably hosting the event and preparing a mouth-watering dinner.