Welcome to this month’s issue of professional resources, produced by the BC Schizophrenia Society, in partnership with the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information.

We hope this newsletter provides you with helpful information to assist you in collaborating with family members and supporters in the care of their loved one with a mental illness. A companion enewsletter is also available for family members.

Ongoing Family Resources

• Reaching Families Calendar  

Families to Refer: Family members looking for support groups or education events in their area of BC. Online listing multi-agency of monthly family support groups http://www.meetings.bcss.org 

If your agency is based in BC and provides family specific support or information events or groups, please send in your information for posting on this calendar.

• Kelty Resource Centre 

Run by BC Mental Health and Addictions Services. Families to Refer: families seeking mental health info and referrals for children/youth with a mental health concern, youth with a mental health concern, adults/youth with eating disorder. BC-wide.

• BC Schizophrenia Society 

Families to Refer: Families of persons with a serious and persistent mental illness (including but not limited to schizophrenia, psychosis, schizoaffective disorders…) All family members welcome at support groups, family education groups (regardless of family member diagnosis). Kids in Control program provides service to children of parents with any kind of mental illness, as does Family Respite program. Online support groups for family members also not diagnosis-limited and are facilitated including groups for adult children, lesbian/gay family of choice and siblings. BC wide.

• The FORCE For Kids Mental Health 

Families to refer: Parents of children with a mental illness.

• Here To Help Website 

BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions information offers a wide variety of general audience information on mental health, addictions and mental wellness. All information is evidence based. Funded by provincial health authority.

If this e-resource has been forwarded to you by a friend, you can sign up for your own copy

Featured Resource

Visions Magazine

[Read Visions online]

Published quarterly, Visions is a nationally award-winning journal which provides a forum for the voices of people living with a mental illness or substance use problem, their family and friends, and service providers in BC. Visions is:

• written by and for mental health consumers (people who have used mental health services) and those with substance use problems, mental health and addictions service providers, family, community members, and mental health and addictions leaders and decision-makers
• a resource for understanding mental health issues and learning ways to put leading mental health policies and programs into practice
• creates a place where many perspectives on mental health issues can be heard and therefore values and promotes contributions of all those who touch and are touched by mental health and addictions issues
• always trying to ask the question, What does it look like in real life? Why should this matter to me? How can I make a difference?

From its inception in 1997 to mid-2003, Visions was a publication produced by CMHA BC Division. Since the fall of 2003, Visions is now a mental health and addictions journal, and is published under the banner of the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information, a collective of leading, provincial mental health and addictions agencies in BC, of which CMHA BC Division is a member.

Recent Editions:

Aboriginal People

Vol. 5, No. 1 (Summer 2008) | 32 pages | table of contents | pdf (1.9 Mb)

This issue of Visions stirs new ground like no other issue has. If you identify yourself as Aboriginal, First Nation, Inuit or Metis, you will likely find much that resonates with you. If you don’t indentify yourself that way, you will still learn a lot from this issue about the role of identity, culture, empowerment and community. Our amazing contributors have weaved mental well-being and wellness into a complex tapestry with spiritual, phsycial and social well-being, as well as the historical unjustices and current realities faced by many Aboriginal people including family violence and abuse, child neglect, trauma, discrimination, poverty, and homelessness.

Campuses

Vol. 4, No. 3 (Spring 2008) | 36 pages | table of contents | pdf (1.7 Mb)

This issue of Visions probes beyond the sunny surface of campus life to examine some of the underlying mental health and substance use issues facing post-secondary students, practitioners and administrators. Family members, students, counsellors and other campus professionals share insights into sources of student stress, substance use and the state of student mental health on various BC campuses. They also highlight outreach initiatives and innovative programs for students. You will also hear from students who struggled to make the grade, triumphed over adversity, and some of whom succeeded in creating change on their campus.

Medications

Vol. 4, No. 2 (Fall 2007) | 36 pages | table of contents | pdf ( 2.0 Mb)

Medications are often a double-edged sword. They can lift symptoms of mental illness or addiction so that people can feel well enough to do all the other hard work needed for recovery. But, they also present a host of complex challenges from side effects and interactions, to affordability and access. This issue of Visions aims to help consumers feel more like partners in their care and tries to present a helpful guide into the complex world of pharmaceutical treatment of mental or substance use disorders.

Housing and Homelessness

Vol. 4, No. 1 (Summer 2007) | 40 pages | table of contents | pdf (1.7 Mb)

This milestone issue of Visions navigates through the intricate web of housing and homelessness. You’ll come to realize just how deeply entrenched mental illness and addiction are in BC’s homelessness landscape. This issue is full of heartbreaking, frustrating and uplifting personal stories from people who have lived or are still living on the streets; and from the compassionate souls who are trying to help them. You’ll be inspired by profiles of innovative programs that are removing barriers to housing for those who need it most.