In this issue
Welcome to HeretoHelp Within Reach! HeretoHelp Within Reach is a quarterly resource that highlights resources from HeretoHelp and the BC Partners for Mental Health and Substance Use Information. Discover new publications, hidden gems, and upcoming events, news, and updates. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @HeretoHelpBC.
This issue of Within Reach shares online tools and resources from our partner organizations that aim to educate, support, and connect British Columbians.
Look Again: Mental Illness Re-Examined podcast from the BC Schizophrenia Society
The BC Schizophrenia Society will launch their new podcast Look Again: Mental Illness Re-Examined on March 31, 2021. The podcast takes a close look at serious mental illnesses, dispelling myths and holding conversations with people with lived experience of mental illness, families, and medical experts to increase awareness.
Open Hearts Honest Conversations: A podcast from Family Services of the North Shore Family Services of the North Shore
www.familyservices.bc.ca/podcasts
Open Hearts Honest Conversations with host and registered clinical counsellor Valerie Dolgin is a space to share stories, connect, and learn tools and strategies you can apply in your own life. The first two episodes are up online: Parenting During a Pandemic with guest Julia Staub-French and Loving Your Body, Loving Yourself – During a Pandemic with guest Joanna Zelichowska.
Bounce Back Online from the Canadian Mental Health Association BC Division
Bounce Back is a free skills-based program to help people manage low to moderate depression, anxiety, stress, or worry. Participants use skills based in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) to help manage thoughts and feelings, improve their mood, take action, and build healthy habits into their daily lives. Bounce Back is available to British Columbians as a self-guided online course called Bounce Back Online. It's free and you don't need a doctor's referral. For people who would like extra support, Bounce Back is also available with phone coaching sessions—visit bouncebackbc.ca to learn more about coaching.
Help for the Hard Times from FamilySmart
Help for the Hard Times is an online course for parents or caregivers of children who have been a patient in a psychiatric unit in Vancouver, Surrey, or southern Vancouver Island. Participants learn how to support a safety plan at home, take care of themselves and the family after a crisis, and find local resources. Help for the Hard Times is a series of four one-hour online sessions and a one-on-one phone call or video with a facilitator. It's free with no waitlist.
Online support groups from the Mood Disorders Association of BC
mdabc.net/resources/mdabc-support-groups
While in-person support groups remain on hold, several support groups from the Mood Disorders Association of BC are available online, including the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Group, Mindfulness Group, and Bipolar Support Group. If you have questions about a specific group, you can contact the coordinator directly to see if a group is the right fit. All are free of charge. The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Group does require registration but all others do not require registration—you can drop in whenever you need to connect.
Systemic Racism issue of Visions
www.heretohelp.bc.ca/visions/systemic-racism-vol16
Systemic racism is all of the biases and barriers that are built into institutions, communities, and ways of thinking about and understanding others. In health systems, systemic racism both ignores the impact of trauma, discrimination, colonization, and silencing on mental and physical health while it prevents BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) community members from accessing good, safe health care. Woven into health injustices and inequities is policing. In this issue of Visions, contributors share paths toward health and justice.
