A safe place to talk openly about mental health & illness
I've written before about the issues with language policing, but this is probably one of the more controversial areas where I believe that words matter less than people might think. We aren't "supposed to" talk about successful suicide or failed suicide attempts. Sara of Surviving Sara brought this up recently, and I told her it's… Continue reading Failed/Successful Suicide: Do Words Matter? What’s the Real Failure?
StopSIM When Skinny Hobbit shared an iNews article with me the other day about the mistreatment of high-service-needs people with mental illness, I had no idea just how deep of a rabbit hole the whole thing would be. The story of Serenity Integrated Mentoring, the NHS (the UK's National Health Service), and the way the… Continue reading Serenity Integrated Mentoring: Suicide Attempt? Do Not Pass Go
It's been more than a year, and COVID is still going strong. It's made a lot of people sick and it's killed a lot of people. The lockdowns and social distancing have given most people cabin fever, and the ongoing stress has been bad for everyone's mental health. But what about those of us who… Continue reading Has COVID Impacted Your Access to (Mental) Health Care?
I saw this CBC News story recently about a man who was written off because he was just a psych patient. I wanted to write about it, then promptly forgot about it until suninthespring brought it to my attention. In April 2018, David Pontone went to the emergency department at Humber River Hospital in Toronto,… Continue reading Just a Psych Patient? Stigma in the ER
I was talking recently with Luftmentsch of Vision of the Night about the health care systems in the UK and Canada, and I thought it would be interesting to take a look at what a patient scenario might look like in different health care systems. Health care systems overview First, let's take a quick look… Continue reading How Does Your Local Health Care System Work?
Black Lives Matter has been leading the charge in calling for defunding the police. While that may initially sound like a very bad idea, taking money away from the police is only half of the picture. The money that would be spent on police is instead shifted to community programs and supports to handle the… Continue reading Defunding the Police: What It Could Mean for Mental Illness
Stand Tall Little Girl is a memoir by Hope Virgo that focuses on her experience with anorexia nervosa. If you're active on social media, you may recognize Hope from her Dump the Scales campaign to stop weight from being used as a barrier to mental health services for people experiencing eating disorders. The book is published… Continue reading Book Review: Stand Tall Little Girl by Hope Virgo
Is access to healthcare a right that should be shared by all people regardless of socioeconomic status? Or is it a privilege that belongs to those who can afford to pay? Growing up in Canada, all I ever knew was a public healthcare system. There is no charge to see a doctor or to be… Continue reading Is Healthcare a Right or a Privilege?
A few days ago, my family doctor had sent me into hospital because of worsening shortness of breath. I wasn't overly surprised when I was met with stigma in the ER. It seemed like the ER doc took one look at my list of psych meds and wrote me off as "just a psych patient."… Continue reading Adventures in Mental Illness Stigma in the ER
When it comes to mental health care, or health care in general for that matter, a simple fact is that the sicker people get, the more it costs to treat them. Sicker people need more acute services, and they need to continue accessing those services for longer amounts of time. Acute care services are extremely… Continue reading Why Funding Community Mental Health Care Matters