Change Something: Mental Illness, Drugs, Homelessness, Poverty

“Mental health is the ability to meet our obligations and challenges; adapt to change and adversity; share, not hoard; give credit, not blame; relate well to others; lead by example.”

What if, because of mental illness, we cannot always meet these criteria? What if, like Geoffrey Reaume, a person is “zonked out all the time”? What if mental illness leads to homelessness? What if a person is met by adversity and is unable to deal with the paperwork that would help alleviate it?

That’s when help is needed. And that’s why I keep rooting for the CMHA to receive $1,000.

Mental health is perhaps our most precious good. With our mental health looked after (I hesitate to say “intact” because to some degree, none of us is in perfect mental health), it’s easier to be of service in other areas – from environmental issues to the plight of abandoned pets to literacy in Africa.

Read on to hear Geoffrey Reaume’s story, about homelessness and mental health advocacy.

Activists say treatment for mental illness is too often more about the pills than the person

Geoffrey Reaume was 21 when he headed for the Dominican Republic with a youth group and a secret.

It was the summer of 1983. For seven years, Reaume had been taking chlorpromazine, a drug prescribed to people diagnosed with schizophrenia. For seven years, he had also endured the drug's side effects.

"I was zonked out, tired all the time" he recalls. "People were always asking if I just got back from Florida because the skin on my face was all red."

Silenced by the stigma associated with any diagnosis of mental illness, Reaume, who now teaches at York University, couldn't bring himself to tell anyone what he was going through. "I was scared but I wanted to try to wean myself off the drug," he recalls.

For the rest of the story, go here

Homeless hospitalized more often for mental illness: study
10,000 people in Canada are homeless on any given night

Homeless people in Canada have more mental health problems than the rest of the population, leading to higher hospitalization rates, says a new report released Thursday.

Mental disorders accounted for 52 per cent of acute care hospitalizations among the homeless in 2005-2006, said the report, released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

Read more here

The [social assistance] application system is now so complicated that many people need help from an advocate to successfully navigate the process. The study found a number of incidents where people were initially denied welfare, but were able to get assistance once they had the help of an advocate-even though there was no change in their circumstances and they were actually eligible the whole time. Yet funding for advocates has been cut. In addition, those most vulnerable and in need-such as people with mental health issues, addictions or language barriers-are often least likely to be able to navigate the system on their own, and less likely to connect with an advocate.

Read more here