Ottawa, ON – Hope and recovery. These are essential messages to convey during Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) as we strive to raise awareness about mental health problems and illnesses and to reduce the associated stigma and discrimination.
Recovery doesn’t necessarily mean a cure but it does mean living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life, even when mental health problems and illnesses create ongoing challenges.
Recovery journeys are built on individual, family, cultural, and community strengths and can be fostered by many types of services, supports, and treatments. That is why each individual and every organization has a role to play in supporting people through their journey of recovery.
The Faces of the MIAW campaign are the ultimate ambassadors of recovery as they courageously lend their faces and share their personal recovery stories with everyone in Canada—illustrating there is no standard path to recovery.
The 2016 Faces, Andrea Paquette, Dexter Nyuurnibe, Stéphanie Fontaine and the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s own Samuel Breau—and all those who have come before them—are living proof that recovery is not only possible, it is probable—provided timely treatment, services and supports are accessible.
We commend the Faces for doing their part and courageously sharing their inspiring stories.
Everybody living in Canada has a part to play in reducing stigma and creating socially inclusive communities that foster recovery and well-being for all.
As an individual or organization, consider signing the Declaration of Commitment to Recovery. This declaration outlines key recovery principles to help foster broader understanding and wider conversations about recovery and build momentum for change. It is intended as a “conversation-starter” to encourage and support individuals and organizations to promote recovery-oriented practices at all levels of the mental health system.
Learn more about recovery by reading the Guidelines for Recovery-Oriented Practice (Guidelines). Developed in collaboration with partners and stakeholders across Canada, the Guidelines are a tool for those who are striving to improve the mental health system, whether in policy or clinical practice, to help them apply more concretely a recovery-oriented approach in their work and inspire new ways of doing and thinking.
View a video of Louise Bradley as she speaks about the MHCC’s work on the occasion of Mental Illness Awareness Week.
ABOUT THE MENTAL HEALTH COMMISSION OF CANADA
The Mental Health Commission of Canada is a catalyst for change. We are collaborating with hundreds of partners to change the attitudes of Canadians toward mental health problems and to improve services and support. Our goal is to help people who live with mental health problems and illnesses lead meaningful and productive lives. Together we create change. The Mental Health Commission of Canada is funded by Health Canada.
www.mentalhealthcommission.ca | strategy.mentalhealthcommission.ca
Media Contact:
Hélène Côté, Senior Communications Advisor, Marketing and Communications
Mental Health Commission of Canada
Office: 613.683.3952
Mobile: 613.857.0840
hcote@mentalhealthcommission.ca
