Best of The Catalyst 2024

If we gave The Catalyst magazine a sub-theme for 2024, it would be Learning and Listening. Stories covered lived experience of mental health and new approaches to therapy, as well as deeply insightful reflections on wellness, mental health research, and new ideas. If you missed some of these stories in 2024, we welcome you to take a tour through the magazine with notable highlights from the year that was. Happy 2025.

Good reads and recommendations

Books on mental health cover the gamut from research to personal tales, to a combination thereof. The Book Club series looks at works by Canadian authors, exploring the sub-themes and ideas. For example, the book Lifeline: An Elegy by author Stephanie Kain, centres around the author’s complicated relationship with a woman diagnosed with suicidal depression. Kain writes about the indignities of a locked ward, having to administer heavy medications, supporting someone through the after-effects of electro-convulsive therapy, and her own well-being. This article about this book received a Canadian Online Publishing Awards nomination. The awards will be announced in February 2025.

Read it: https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/catalyst/book-club-lifeline-an-elegy/

Have you picked up a copy of All In Her Head: How Gender Bias Harms Women’s Mental Health? In it, author Misty Pratt shares her story of a nervous breakdown, anxiety, and depression; her strategies, sessions with therapists, and how these intersected with life stages, such as the birth of her children. The Ottawa author and science researcher weaves in her lived experiences with trenchant analysis of contemporary research through a biopsychosocial lens (a model that looks at biological, psychological, and social factors that influence our lives). It’s a great read with captivating storylines and analysis.

Read about it: https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/catalyst/book-club-all-in-her-head/

Did You Know?

Jessica Ward-King is known as the Stigma Crusher and contributes frequently to The Catalyst through service stories that offer insights and tips. She shows how to be a good ally to transgender and nonbinary people in a political and social climate that can be downright hostile and dangerous.

Read: Rallying as an Ally: https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/catalyst/rallying-as-an-ally/

Naloxone kits can reverse an opioid overdose and should be easily accessible. It is not only those members of the population who live with substance use concerns who could owe their lives to naloxone; it is also people who live with chronic pain and take prescription pain medications – or someone who could get into that pain medication by accident. It is all of us who, in our daily lives, could come across other people who – for whatever reason – have overdosed on opioids.

Read: Kit in Hand: https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/catalyst/kit-in-hand/

Hip-hop therapy is a fusion of hip-hop, bibliotherapy, and music therapy. Toronto therapist Freda Bizimana, MSW, RSW, works with Black and racialized youth in conflict with the law at The Growth & Wellness Therapy Centre. She shared how challenging it is to reach Black youth, particularly those who have come to therapy because of their interaction with the justice system. “They don’t want to be there talking to a stranger,” she says. “Hip-hop gives us a bridge, a way to connect through something they love.” This article received a Canadian Online Publishing Awards nomination. The awards will be announced in February 2025.

Read Remix Your Therapy: https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/catalyst/remix-your-therapy/

Her Story and Her Story

A personal narrative offers particular insights into a life story. The Lived Experience section highlights these stories. In 2024, we met 26-year-old Gillian Corsiatto of Red Deer, Alta., a published author – her debut novel, Duck Light, asks the serious question: “How can one break free of societal expectations?” – and more books and plays are underway. She’s also been a keen improv performer with Bullskit Comedy. She has three part-time jobs: She is a community educator and youth group leader for the Red Deer branch of the Schizophrenia Society of Alberta and has been a guest speaker for The Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Headstrong youth program; she manages social media and recruitment for the Red Deer Royals marching band (in which she used to play the tuba); and has taken a job wrapping and packaging caramels for a small, home-based business. If you have never met a person who lives with schizophrenia – you just did.

Read: What is It Like Living with Schizophrenia?: https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/catalyst/what-is-it-like-living-with-schizophrenia/

Meanwhile, Jessica Ward-King, who you know as the Stigma Crusher, frequently shares her personal stories, in addition to writing educational articles. In Yes, Me, the mental health advocate – who has a doctorate in psychology and first-hand knowledge of bipolar disorder – explains why her mental illness has classified Ward-King as a person with a disability under the employment equity act.

Read: Yes, Me: https://mentalhealthcommission.ca/catalyst/yes-me/

Watch for more great stories in 2025 – you can receive them directly in your inbox once a month by subscribing here: Catalyst Sign-Up – Mental Health Commission of Canada

Fateema Sayani edits The Catalyst and contributes frequently to the Representations and Book Club sections.