Representatives from Canada Post and the Stigma Free Mental Health Society pose for a portrait at the Kipling Street post office on Friday.--News Photo Anna Smith
asmith@medicinehatnews.com
The Canada Post Community Foundation has awarded the Stigma-Free Mental Health Society $25,000 to help empower Medicine Hat residents to take care of their mental health without shame or stigma.
The foundation’s mission is to improve the lives of children and youth, said Murray Price, lead hand for retail at Canada Post.
“As retail employees, we are tasked with raising funds through customer nations, all across Canada,” said Price. “It’s a community-based, grassroots approach that helps the small, underfunded projects that often get left behind. Every dollar raised goes directly to recipients in support of their efforts.”
This is the fifth organization to benefit from this locally, said Price.
The Stigma Free Mental Health Society is a registered charity that promotes mental health and dismantles associated stigma nationwide, offering educational tools and leadership to raise awareness of stigma and provide pathways to change the society’s program.
These programs address the growing mental health crisis in Canada by focusing on understanding and removing that which acts as a barrier to self acceptance, reaching out for help and accepting others, said Price.
For Andrea Paquette, president of the Stigma Free Mental Health Society, the journey to be where they are now has been deeply personal.
“I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2005, quite a long time ago. I was 25 years old, and I almost didn’t make it,” said Paquette. ” It was a very dark time, a very tragic time for me, but as I healed I eventually found hope and help, which I didn’t know was there.”
Paquette told her story to a classroom of students back in British Columbia, and in that moment knew exactly what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. The society focuses on two programs locally; the Rural Mental Wellness Program and the Stigma-Free School Program, the latter of which will be partially funded by this grant.
The Stigma Free Mental Health Society will be customizing their Student Mental Health Toolkit, including its curriculum lesson plans, to align with the unique needs of southern Alberta schools.
The objective is to replicate the success achieved in B.C., where the toolkit offers more than 100 free curriculum-aligned lesson plans and region specific resources to best serve those who rely on it in each area.
Paquette expressed her thanks to both Canada Post and to the community of Medicine Hat for the ongoing interest and support.
