The door creaked open and invited me in
Supporting healing for veterans navigating the transition to post-service life.
Language Matters
From condemnation to compassion
The shift away from saying “committing suicide” goes beyond semantics.
The new frontiers of ability
Imagine, if you will, that you woke up one day and your life was completely unrecognizable. It could happen, for so many reasons, good and bad. What then? Do you fall apart or keep going? Or do you re-imagine what’s possible?
Lived Experience
Pace, Plan, and Prioritize: One Woman’s Story on Coping with Long Covid
Since there’s no cure, those affected must work to manage their symptoms. An innovative hospital program takes an interdisciplinary approach encompassing physical, cognitive, and psychosocial care.
I didn’t imagine that mental health was affected by the colour of one’s skin. I was wrong.
As a white woman, I once overlooked how race shapes care. My wife and son of colour face withheld trust, pain bias, harsher stigma, microaggressions, and scarce, overburdened services. I’ve learned mental health isn’t separate from skin colour; privilege cushions some, while systemic barriers bruise others—often across generations.
Lived Experience
Spotlight
Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Dil Ba Dil (heart to heart) is one of several support programs for newcomers. It is part of ABRAR Trauma and Mental Health’s approach to complex and culturally informed care.
See me as a person, not a diagnosis
When someone says, “you’re so brave” (as they do all the time) all I hear is that to them, my life is pitiful, and I feel diminished and reduced to my diagnosis. It makes me think of an after school special on “never giving up” (remember those cheesy posters from the eighties and nineties with a cat hanging on a rope? Yeah, that.)
Lived Experience
See me as a person, not a diagnosis
‘You’re so brave’ can feel diminishing to those living with mental illness. Courage lies not in existing but in choosing to share our stories against stigma.