Life Unscripted - Stories of Mental Health and Addiction

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Three catastrophic rain storms and massive flooding in Niagara this summer left residents stunned, scared and reeling with the pressure of cleaning up.

In the days the after the flood, even a little rain sent triggered fear.  Trauma therapist Laurie Gill, executive director of Attach Niagara, talks about what many people are quietly carrying: flood trauma. When a home is damaged, routines collapse, and insurance questions pile up, it is not “just stress.” It is a nervous system response to something unexpected, out of your control, and deeply destabilizing.

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The Willow Arts Community may seem like "art therapy" but rather than a clinical approach with a therapist it provides a free, peer-led creative experience and connection for people across Niagara living with mental illnesss, subsatance use and addiction. For some, being with people at the Willow may be  their only connection with people. Founder and Executive Director Leigh McLeod explains how the Willow helps recovery. You don't have to have any art experience. There's no judgement. Courses are offered across Niagara and include everything from painting to music to soft art.  Learn more about how you or someone you know can exerience the Willow.

https://thewillowcommunity.com

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For many teens and young adults thoughts Are Not Facts. Getting out of bed can be the hardest part of the day, and for a lot of teens, that struggle stays hidden behind jokes, grades, or silence. Youth mental health speaker, Lawrence C. Harris, helps teens and young adults believe in themselves, think differently about their future, and make better choices rooted in self-respect. Lawrence shares his lived experience with severe bullying, being kicked out the house at 13, childhood abuse, and the kind of loneliness that makes even saying Hi to someone feel like you are a burden.

Learn more about Lawrence at: https://www.lawrencecharris.com

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It’s not a joke when a doctor or other health care professionals gives you a prescription to nature to improve your mental and physical health. Dr. Melissa Lem, a Vancouver family physician and co-founder of PARX (Park Prescriptions Canada),  explains how nature prescriptions work and why they’re gaining traction across the world.

If you are a health care professional and would like more information or are just interested in what it's about got to https://www.parkprescriptions.ca.

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Intimiate partner violenced and femicide are rising in dramatice numbers across the country.  There has been a 57.8% jump in intimate partner violence investigations in Niagara in two years. This number is mirrored across the country.  Jennifer Guathier, executive director of Birchway women’s shelter talks about why there has been such a dramatic increase.
Birchway Niagara – https://birchway.ca/

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Darcy Patrick started 2022 on a high. He was releasing his 5th book and had started his dream job as a peer support worker, using his years of experience with depression and mental health recovery. Then he was hit by a severe infection that was eating his spinal cord. The never ending pain was excruciating. Darcy used all the tools he had developed over more than a decade and just released his 6th book Personal Growth.  Darcy now has a device implanted in his spinal cord that as reduced his pain by 80% and he's back doing what he loves - helping people.

See all of Darcy's books and his workshops at: darcypatrick.com

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Mental health crises rarely start as an “emergency” and that’s exactly why people need clear options before things hit the breaking point. Kristen Dyell, Clinical Director of Operations at Canadian Mental Health Association Niagara, talks about what supports  CMHA offers, from no charge same day counselling to the Mobile Crisis Rapid  Response Team, which pairs a police officer and a social worker to respond to emergency calls.

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A two-and-a-half-year wait for youth mental health care can turn a manageable struggle into a crisis. Angela Simo Brown, President & CEO,  of Capitalize for Kids, talks about a different way to tackle the problem: not just raising money, but bringing pro bono business and technology expertise into child and youth mental health agencies to remove bottlenecks, reduce paperwork, and help clinicians spend more time with kids and families.

For more information go to: https://capitalizeforkids.org/

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Cassidy McKinnon shares what it looks like to transition from male to female in your 50s. Cassidy talks about how she slowly made the transition to ensure her wife, and especially her little girl, were OK. How the depression she'd been living since she was a teenager suddenly lifted once she began hormones. Cassidy's message to others thinking of or in the process of tranisitioning: Don't rush and be patient with yourself and others.

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