“There is no health without mental health,” is the message the Canadian Mental Health Association Grey Bruce is urging people to think about this week.
CMHA Grey Bruce’s Jackie Ralph says it’s important to talk about Mental Illness Awareness Week locally, and to call attention to it at a federal and provincial level.
“We need to have the same equal access to mental health care as we do to physical health care,” says Ralph.
Ralph says mental illness issues affect more of us than you may think, “The stats tell us that 1 in 5 of us are going to struggle at some point and in fact, half a million people miss work every week across Canada.”
She says, “A lot of that could be because of wait times. If you’re waiting to talk to somebody and see somebody about your mental health and how you’re doing then that’s going to prolong you getting back to your normal self and getting back to work.”
Ralph notes, “That adds up, that’s $51 billion a year in lost time. What could we be doing with that money and how could we be supporting people better?”
Ralph says the CMHA wants a widespread standard of care to be a priority, “CMHA national, they’re our go-to in terms of really pushing the federal government to do things more consistently across the board and fund our provincial government with the funding needed to have those services.”
Ralph says the CMHA drop-in clinic in Hanover is reopening now, on Tuesdays from 1p.m. to 3 p.m. at The Loft 290 10th Street, she notes, “It’s not acute, it’s not in place of calling 911, but you can go in there and actually speak face to face with a counselor that can work you through what the next step is.”
Right now the Owen Sound site is closed due to the pandemic, but Ralph notes the 24-hour mental health help line is always accessible at 1-877-470-5200.
Ralph also notes the Grey Bruce Health Services Hospital Site in Owen Sound has a mental health emergency room which has been open 24/7 during the pandemic.
“Grey Bruce Health Services has made it a priority to have the space where if you are in crisis and looking for those additional supports for your mental health, you can go in and there’s an on-call social workers, on-call psychiatrist, on-call rapid access addiction medicine person that can come and help.”
The CMHA Grey Bruce is also featuring a series of interviews for Mental Illness Awareness Week on its website, and stories about people’s individual journeys in a segment called Faces of Mental Illness
