MINTO – Town council received an update on the Minto Mental Health initiative at the Jan. 22 meeting.
The initiative was set to officially launch during Bell Let’s Talk day on Jan. 30.
Aimed at bringing mental health training and awareness opportunities to residents of Minto, the community-driven program has been under development since last June, when the town and Minto Fire hosted an event at Norwell District Secondary School dubbed a Community Conversation on Suicide.
The event was held in response to a proliferation of suicides in Minto and northern Wellington County in the preceding months.
Minto assistant fire chief Callise Loos told council an organizational committee has been working with the Canadian Mental Health Association “and other stakeholders across the county” over the past six months.
Loos and children’s program coordinator Jessica Dettman said the program launch would include visits to locations throughout Minto to hand out material and talk to the community about the new program.
Awareness events were scheduled for Gramma Jo’s restaurant in Clifford, Foodland in Palmerston and Harry Stones Social House in Harriston on launch day.
A Minto Mental Health website and Twitter are also up and running.
Mintomentalhealth.ca is designed as a hub to connect Minto residents with available services in the surrounding area.
“Right now, we have on paper close to 500 resources to go on our website,” Loos noted.
Dettman said the hub will provide easy access to situation-specific crisis resources.
“If you’re in crisis, you don’t want to have to go through a list of numbers and it’s like ‘I don’t’ know which one to call.’ So there’s a crisis section there,” she explained.
Other events planned included screenings of the film Beautiful Boy at the Norgan Theatre on Feb. 18 and 19 and a self-care tea blending workshop on March 27. Beautiful Boy features Steve Carrell as the father of a teenager hooked on crystal meth trying to understand what has happened to his apparently perfect, happy-go-lucky son.
“It’s a film about a family that’s dealing with addiction … and it aligns quite well with what we are doing,” said Dettman, adding a community screening will be offered on Family Day, and the committee is also planning to involve Norwell District Secondary School in a film presentation.
Current activities include ongoing efforts to add resources to the website, selection of a logo from the results of a recent contest, meetings with service providers on “care pathways” and the meeting with school officials about the project.
In the short term, organizers will be working to complete research on peer support groups and develop a program outline, implementing awareness events and applications for various funding opportunities.
Loos said committee members identified peer support groups as a priority.
Loos and Dettman explained initial research has identified a number areas where local mental health services are lacking:
– coordinated planning;
– preventative action;
– targeted approaches for priority populations;
– awareness about how to access services;
– understanding mental health and existing negative attitudes toward help-seeking; and
– established referral pathways for service providers.
A three-step approach to the initiative involves initial awareness efforts, leading to a range of training and educational opportunities, followed by the establishment of new support services.
Calling the initiative “long overdue,” councillor Ron Elliott asked if the program would extend assistance to families of those dealing with mental health issues or addictions.
“A lot of the support stuff is for individuals that are suffering from mental health issues, but there’s another set of supports for family members,” Dettman replied. “Essentially we want to make the community feel safe for everyone.”
While commending the initiative, councillor Mark MacKenzie expressed concern the need for this type of program is a sign of gaps in local health care.
“I find it hard to swallow … that we have to do that, the community has to do that. What I’m reading here and hearing is suggesting that our local health care is not doing the job for us,” he stated.
“I’m not really blaming community mental health; the system is over-stressed,” said Mayor George Bridge. “We could sit back and say, ‘well, we could have more mental health workers out here,’ but I think what we’ve done as a council is … we’ve put some resources into it.”
Bridge added, “I agree with Mark that it’s too bad that it’s falling on the municipal shoulders, but at the end of the day … I don’t want another suicide.”
Councillor Jean Anderson said, “I wouldn’t say that they’re failing us. They don’t have enough capacity, but they have come light years … There used to be a time where you tried to call for mental health in the hospital you got a buzzer on somebody’s desk, because we had no after-hours services.
“We now have one number to call 24-hours; Trellis has worked really, really hard out of Homewood to provide community service.”
Loos said, “We’re just trying to add value to the services and maybe include support services that hopefully will help people through their journey.”
“Our goal is to be a proactive community as opposed to a reactive community,” said Dettman.
Council passed a motion to accept the report.
