Find Support Near You
BC Schizophrenia Society has a dedicated team across BC.
Find an educator near you
BCSS educators are informed on what resources and services are available in their local communities.
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Anisha Johal
Fraser South & East Regional Educator
Anisha is a recent graduate from KPU, with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Counselling. Having a sibling with schizophrenia fueled her passion for de-stigmatizing mental illness and increasing public understanding of its impact on daily life and one’s overall quality of life. As an educator, she is particularly excited about the opportunity to collaborate with a community team to help families access the support they need for their loved ones. Anisha is eager to learn from others at BCSS and expand her skills and resources to better serve the community.
In her free time, she loves being outdoors, soaking up the sun, spending time at the beach, and practicing meditation and deep breathing exercises.
Bonnie Spence-Vinge
Interior Regional Manager
Bonnie Spence-Vinge is the Interior Regional Manager, leading a team of Regional Educators located across the Interior Health Authority Region who are providing direct family support, education and services to families affected by schizophrenia and other severe and persistent mental illness.
Before Bonnie started working with BCSS in January of 2017, she worked in the B.C. education system for over 30 years as a teacher, school psychologist, counsellor and Assistant Superintendent of Schools. For six of those years, she was the Provincial Coordinator of Child Abuse Prevention and Assistant Director of the Special Education Branch of the B.C. Ministry of Education. Her extensive work in education has also taken her to Nunavut where she served as the Executive Director and Superintendent of Schools.
Her personal experience as the mother of two adopted children diagnosed with mental illnesses brought Bonnie to BCSS, where the Strengthening Families Together Program helped Bonnie and her husband cope with their experience and come to terms with mental illness. Bonnie now takes her personal experience into local communities to help families better understand that there are still reasons to hope by finding the means to cope.
In the Cranbrook-Creston area, Bonnie acts as a liaison between families and the mental health system and promotes family inclusion in the daily lives of those living with mental illness. She also organizes education programs for families and community members, including Aboriginal communities.
When she’s not working, Bonnie is busy volunteering in her community. She is the chair for the Cranbrook Hub for Refugees, and the Patient Voices representative on both the East Kootenay Collaborative Services Committee and the East Kootenay Mental Health and Substance Use Wellness Advisory Committee. Bonnie also enjoys running, swimming, snowshoeing, and spending time outdoors camping, biking, hiking and gardening.
Catherine Larnon-Trout
Fraser North Regional Educator
Catherine’s journey with BCSS began ten years ago and has evolved into her role as a Regional Educator in the Vancouver Coastal/Fraser region. She mixes formal theory with first-hand experience as a family member and caregiver of a person with mental illness. Catherine’s son has lived with schizophrenia for over 25 years.
Christine Riddell
Vancouver Island Regional Manager
Christine became the Vancouver Island Regional Manager after working with Alberta Health Services’ Addiction and Mental Health department for many years. In her previous role, she helped establish new services, facilitated mental health literacy programs and helped reduce stigma within the community. She considers working with other families and caregivers in her role with BCSS a privilege. As a family member to a loved one with a mental illness herself, she knows how important it is for people to come together and provide one another with quality information about resources, support and hope. In her free time, Christine enjoys exploring the beaches and forests of Vancouver Island with family, friends, and her dog, as well as tending to her garden with her cats.
Clara Donnelly
Bulkley Valley Regional Educator
Clara Donnelly has been with BCSS since 2014 and has worked as a Bulkley Valley Regional Educator for the last nine years. Clara is originally from Mexico, and before moving here, she worked as a speech pathologist, special needs preschool teacher, university professor, and child psychotherapist; after moving here, she also worked as a behavioural consultant, frontline worker for adults with disabilities, and home share coordinator. She considers all of her diverse work experiences as professional achievements and is proud of all of them equally. The way the brain works fascinates her, and learning how brain functions can impact behaviour is what first interested her in the mental health field.
Gail Rutledge
Northern Interior Regional Manager
Gail has been with BCSS since 2015. She started by volunteering in her region but quickly realized there was so much more to do to help others find support and education. She’s now the Northern Interior Regional Manager and a certified peer specialist for Families.
Gail has a BA in Psychology from Thompson Rivers University and a degree in applied psychology and counselling with a specialization in psychotherapy from Kelowna College of Professional Counselors and has also worked as an addiction treatment specialist.
Outside of work, Gail loves crafting—from knitting to crocheting to painting—reading and travelling. If she ever won the lottery, she says she’d be a professional student as she loves learning new things.
Hardeep Thind
Coastal Regional Manager
Hardeep has been working for BCSS since 2001 and is currently the regional manager of the Vancouver Coastal region, which encompasses the Vancouver area out to Hope. She has worked in the mental health field since 1999, with most of her work focusing on supporting and providing education to families in the Fraser Health region. Hardeep has been an advocate for her family member with schizoaffective disorder for the past 27 years. As she has experience on both sides of healthcare services, she brings a deep understanding of the importance of family involvement in their loved one’s journey. Hardeep recognizes it is a delicate balance when advocating for a loved one and working with frontline staff. She has helped countless families navigate the healthcare system.
In her free time, you can find Hardeep at the baseball diamond watching her boys play or at home making crafts and gifts.
Heather Megchelsen
Lakes District Regional Educator
Heather has studied and worked in all three western provinces, engaging and encouraging individuals and families of all ages in a variety of ways. She joined the BC Schizophrenia Society in 2011 to support family members in their journeys of adapting to and living with mental illnesses. She uses education, peer support groups, and 1:1 visits to help families, friends, and individuals move forward through life’s challenges.
Janet Simpson-Cooke
Cowichan Regional Educator
Janet Simpson-Cooke started with BCSS in August 2021. She has a Master’s degree in English and Creative Writing, a professional teacher’s certificate, as well as her professional counselling diploma. Over the last forty years, she’s taught elementary, secondary, and university courses.
Janet’s past experience in education, along with her counselling experience, helps support the relationships she builds with BCSS families. Every family brings unique experiences that allow her to grow, develop, and shape the strategies necessary for change.
Jennifer Kastelein
Vancouver Regional Educator
Jennifer Kastelein is a Regional Educator for the Vancouver Coastal-Fraser region. She’s very passionate about spreading the message of mental health advocacy and dismantling stigma with education. Helping families by contributing to the Partnership Education Presentations and the Strengthening Families Together programs is one of her most rewarding parts of working at BCSS.
Jennifer has a diploma in marketing and sales management from UBC and has received both the President’s Club Award from Glacier Media in 2016 and the Most Inspirational Leadership Award ACT. She loves hiking, kayaking, and golfing when she’s not working. She’s also a fire walker and glass walker.
Jorie Soames
Northwest Regional Manager
Jorie Soames moved to Terrace from Kelowna three years ago, falling in love with the people, the mountains and waterways of the northwest and is excited to be part of the team as the new regional manager. Jorie has a background in project management and for the last five years, has worked as a college instructor and educator to individuals with neurodifferences. She has formal training in communications, autism spectrum disorder and a master’s degree in critical and creative writing.
Jorie’s organizational skills and patience are finely honed – and tested – through raising a large family, who she loves spending time with, especially when board games and food are involved.
Julia Gillis
Victoria Regional Educator
Julia Gillis is our new Regional Educator for Vancouver Island. In her last four years of work, she’s supported dozens of clients as they overcome addictions, disordered eating, and somatically locked pain and heal from low nurture and developmental abuse backgrounds through trauma-informed, holistic health consulting. She focuses on intergenerational understanding and healing as well as tools for resiliency.
Julia comes from a family that has struggled with multiple generations of addiction and mental illness and is extremely passionate about supporting healthy love and resiliency development in family legacies. She believes that supporting and nurturing every individual in a community should be paramount and is excited to contribute to the work BCSS is doing in this field.
Julia has a Double Diploma in Community and Addictions Support Work and is trained in NLP, cognitive behaviour change, and motivational interviewing. She has also previously held certificates as a nutritionist and personal trainer. In her free time, Julia is an avid reader and hiker.
Kate Seo
Fraser North Regional Educator
Kate Seo is the Regional Educator for Fraser North (Vancouver). She has always been passionate about mental health advocacy, with a particular focus on better understanding mental illnesses and reducing the stigma that surrounds them. As a new Educator, she is excited to learn and collaborate with the BCSS team to support families in the local communities. She is grateful for the opportunity to hear people’s stories and looks forward to building meaningful connections through all the conversations!
Kate is currently wrapping up her undergraduate degree in Neuroscience, Public Health, and Physiology at UBC Vancouver. In her free time, Kate likes to write her travel blog, go for a picnic with friends and family, and swim.
Kathleen Larose
Thompson-Nicola Regional Educator
Kathleen Larose is the new Thompson-Nicola Regional Educator for the Interior Region. She brings fifteen years of experience in the mental health and addictions field into her work supporting families dealing with mental illness and has lived experience as a family member of loved ones with schizophrenia. She is passionate about educating and helping others, and her long-term goal is to become a professor of public health and medical anthropology.
Kathleen has a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology. In her free time, she sings jazz and loves to bake.
Michelle Ellerton
Prince George Regional Educator
Michelle Ellerton is a BCSS Regional Educator in Prince George and a family peer supporter certified by Peer Support Canada. Michelle joined the BCSS team as a staff member in 2020 after volunteering with the organization since 2018. She began volunteering with BCSS after her husband suffered a psychotic break and was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder. As a family member herself, Michelle understands the importance of telling one’s story and helping to break the stigma around mental illness.
When not working, Michelle enjoys spending time outdoors, crafting, and creating things with her hands. She’s been told that no matter how tough life gets, she can always find the positive and make people smile.
Noleen Mueller
Vancouver & Richmond Regional Educator
Noleen is a Regional Educator for the Vancouver Coastal region. She is passionate about helping make positive changes and volunteering for her community. For her, the most fulfilling thing about working at BCSS is the opportunity to work with a team that supports each other and looks for creative and healthy ways to advocate and educate about mental illness. She enjoys working with families and feels privileged to have family members’ trust, hear their stories and make personal connections.
Noleen has been with BCSS since 2018. She loves the outdoors, the smell of fresh air, meeting new people, and having conversations over a cup of coffee.
Pearl Meredith
Fraser South & East Regional Educator
Pearl Meredith is a recent psychology graduate with a background in community outreach. She is passionate about reducing the stigma surrounding mental illness and improving public understanding of these illnesses and their different methods of treatment due to her love for family and friends with lived experience.
Her long-term goals include completing a clinical psychology PhD and working directly with people who have serious mental illness. Working with BCSS is incredibly exciting for Pearl as she sees it as an opportunity to be part of a positive change in how we deal with mental illness in our province. She cannot wait to be the helping hand that families need and deserve.
Pearl lives with her partner in Cloverdale and loves to read, shoot pool, and host dinner parties in her spare time.
Rachael Ernst
Okanagan Regional Educator
Rachael Ernst is BCSS’ Interior Regional Educator for the Okanagan area. Rachael has a strong passion for helping others, and has experience in a variety of support roles, including long-term care assistance for dementia patients and youth mentoring. Her own personal journey with mental illness was what first drew her to BCSS and our family-centric approach, and she knows firsthand the power education can have for those living with severe mental illness and their families.
Rachael has a diploma in Music Therapy Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology; she’s also been playing the piano since she was four. In her free time, she enjoys trying new culinary delights with her husband and spending time in the outdoors.
Reasha Wolfe
Interior Regional Educator
Reasha (she/they) has gratefully lived and worked on the unceded traditional territory of the Sinixt peoples for the last decade, and has worked in human services and advocacy for over 20 years.
Reasha has supported and advocated for migrant farm workers, newcomers, indigenous people, people who’ve experienced violence, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, and more. After the loss of her stepbrother, who lived with schizophrenia, in 2020, they shifted their focus to mental health.
Reasha is an artist, and seasoned snowboard instructor, and fluent in English, French, and Spanish.
Reneé Morven
Prince Rupert Regional Educator
Reneé Morven is the Prince Rupert Regional Educator for BCSS in the traditional and unceded Territory of the Ts’msyen people. She has lived experience as a family member to a sibling with schizophrenia and to a non-verbal daughter with complex needs.
Reneé’s work experience involves community outreach, workshop facilitation, engaging with families, and partnership presentations. She knows the value of storytelling and finding common ground. In her experience, interactions work better in the North when you get to know someone better personally and by sitting down to have that cup of tea or coffee. In smaller communities, these kinds of continuous slow and steady positive encounters help build trust in relationships, and she brings this perspective to BCSS to help create a safe space for everyone.
Reneé is passionate about Herbalism and harvests wild medicine and plants that heal. To her, healing means treating a person as a whole, and no two people are alike. With this experience and knowledge, she hopes to help families build their capacity and work with them in their journey of hope with their loved one who lives with a serious mental illness.
Shelley Braun
Haida Gwaii Regional Educator
Shelley Braun has been the BCSS Regional Educator for Haida Gwaii, home of the Haida, since 2021. Her personal and professional experience with mental illness and disordered substance use plays a leading role in shaping her practice and intentions. Her approach involves connecting with individuals one-on-one, facilitating workshops and support groups, and fostering open dialogue about mental health in schools, local organizations, and public spaces.
Outside of work, Shelley finds balance through yoga, tai chi, and foreign films and cherishes moments on the beach and in the forest with loved ones.
Steffi Thomas
Northeast Regional Manager
Steffi Thomas joined BCSS in May 2017 and is the Northeast Regional Manager. Assisting others has been a central passion of hers throughout her professional journey, and she enjoys being able to contribute to the lives of those she serves meaningfully. Working at BCSS allows her the unique opportunity to give back to the community and provide essential support to families in need, making a profound and positive impact on their lives.
Steffi is a new mom, loves travelling and trying out new food spots.
Stephanie Gardner
Terrace Regional Educator
Stephanie has been a Northwest Regional Educator at BCSS since 2022. Before that, she worked as a practical nurse throughout the province for over a decade and has extensive experience working in the mental health and addictions sphere in Terrace, BC. She has certificates in practical nursing, early childhood education, and medical transcription and is happy to bring her experience and love of helping others to BCSS. She has also achieved Level 9 in piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music.
Stephanie is a mom of three and has two rescue pets. She loves playing piano, travelling, and spending time with family and friends whenever possible.
Branches near you
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Frequently asked questions
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The decision to seek help for a relative or friend can be tough for many reasons. It can be difficult to know what to do or where to go, or there may be uncertainty about the problem. The person may not want help or may not recognize there is a problem. It can be difficult to cope with a person who is in distress but refusing to get help. If you suspect that your loved one may have a mental or substance use problem, it is essential to be honest and open when talking with them.
- If the person appears to be a danger to themselves or others, seek help immediately.
- Let the person know that others have noticed changes in their feelings and behaviour and are concerned they may be having difficulties.
- Listen to what they have to say and try to solve the problem together.
- Encourage the person to talk with their doctor or mental health professional. Offer to go with them to an appointment.
- If the person does not believe they have a problem or refuses to get help, encourage them to talk with someone they trust.
- Allow the person to stay in control by offering choices about how family members and friends can help them.
- Offer to help the person to find out more about where to get assistance.
- Reassure them that it’s okay to seek help, even if they think they can cope without it.
- Stay optimistic about the future and reassure them that things will improve.
- If the family member is a child or youth, talk to their school counsellor.
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There are several factors that contribute to the risk of developing schizophrenia:
- Genetics
- Environment
- Brain chemistry
- Brain structure
- Brain development
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When someone has psychosis, it can be difficult for doctors to make an exact diagnosis because symptoms are not unique to one disorder (e.g., psychosis can occur with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or schizoaffective disorder).
Families have an essential role to play in this assessment. Families can provide valuable information about family medical history, birth and childhood history, physical or emotional trauma, school adjustment and achievement. They can also give the history of the presenting problem, including how the person was functioning before the onset of symptoms and what changes the family has observed. Distinguishing between disorders is difficult in the early stages. For this reason, medical professionals may not attempt to make an initial diagnosis.
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See our Supporting a Loved One page for more information and contacts for getting your loved one assessed and provided with medical help. You may also find these pages helpful:
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Find information on schizophrenia in Français / 中文 / ਪੰਜਾਬੀ / हिंदी / বাঙালি / اردو / Español HERE.
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