EXPERT ADVISORY: R00015 – 24 January 2017

Wednesday Jan. 25 is Bell Let’s Talk Day, and efforts will be made across the country to break the silence around mental illness.

As part of that national dialogue, Brock University has three experts available to comment on personal experiences, living well with mental illness and breaking down stigma and myths.

Shannon Kerwin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Sport Management, can speak to:
•    Her personal history being a PhD student and having a parent experiencing severe depression resulting in suicide
•    Impact of suicide on family members
•    Coming to a place where she is able to talk about the experience
•    Realizing the importance of needing to talk about mental health issues with others
•    Honouring loved ones by participating in awareness-raising activities

Kerwin says: “Feb. 1 will mark the 10-year anniversary of the death of my father, who took his own life after battling with depression. He was an incredible father and husband, however, this terrible disease ate away at him as he suffered in silence. Through the efforts of Bell Let’s Talk, I hope everyone who is suffering from depression will realize they don’t need to suffer in silence. There are family and friends who care deeply about them and want to help. No one should feel alone. Please. Let’s Talk.”

Colleen Hood, Professor in the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, can speak to:
•    Living well with mental illness, learning to tolerate discomfort and purposefully creating positive experiences.
•    Designing and developing therapeutic recreation intervention programs at Niagara Health (Happy Habits, Be Your Best Self)
•    Psychotherapy in a private practice

Hood says: “I believe that people with mental health issues can learn to create a life of meaning, which incorporates lingering symptoms associated with mental illness while at the same time building positivity, meaning and connection into life.”

Lynn McCleary, Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing, can speak to:
•    Brock Nursing’s mandatory mental health theory and clinical practice course, which is rare in registered nurse education in Canada
•    Research about what it’s like for persons with mental illness to encounter stigma from health professionals
•    Learning, through listening to people share their experiences, that mental illness doesn’t define a person and makes them no different than other clients.
•    Analyzing mental illness in the arts (e.g., reading memoirs, viewing films)
•    Facts that confront stigmas around mental illness, and improving access to health services for persons with mental illness
 
McCleary says: “It’s important that nurse educators break down stigma and myths about mental illness for their students. Sadly, Canadians with mental illness still encounter stigma, judgment and negative attitudes about mental illness from the health professionals they encounter when they seek help for physical illness.”

To arrange interviews, send requested date and time to:

* Maryanne Firth, Writer/Web Editor, Brock University maryanne.firth@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x4420 or 289-241-8288

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