The holiday season is synonymous with giving. Many of us dedicate our time and attention to causes close to our hearts and to people in need of support. For unpaid or family caregivers, though, giving is more than a seasonal gesture of goodwill.
In 2018, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Burin Peninsula became the first of eight communities to sign on to the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s (MHCC’s) Roots of Hope project — a community-led suicide prevention initiative that aims to prevent suicide with strategies adapted to the local context.
If there was ever a need for crisis training, it was during the onset of COVID-19. That’s one reason the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) stepped into the breach by offering virtual training to more than 5,139 essential workers, who took over 574 courses between April and October.
A call for communities to join our Roots of Hope Early Adopters initiative.
How one group is making strides toward better access to psychotherapy
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“Health-care workers have always been heroes in my eyes,” said Louise Bradley, president and CEO of the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), herself a registered nurse and former hospital administrator. “But when a once-in-a-generation crisis like COVID-19 arises, we ask even more of an already overextended workforce.”
The coronavirus pandemic has introduced a long list of reasons to feel anxious. For months the country has been in virtual lockdown, with physical distance separating us from each other and turning the world as we knew it on its head. Now, as the country begins to reopen, new concerns are emerging, and return or re-entry anxiety is setting in for many.
Almost overnight, physical distancing has become part of the Canadian lexicon. By now, we all know we must distance ourselves from others to slow the spread of COVID-19. But physical separation does not have to diminish social connection. If we’re more mindful in our thoughts and actions, the public health measures keeping us apart have the power to bring us closer together.
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