World Mental Health Day is coming up, and one southeast Saskatchewan advocate hopes that the conversation will continue throughout the year.
鈥淎wareness days like World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10 are absolutely fabulous to open up the discussion about mental health, but I always think about Oct. 11, 12 and the rest of the year when people find themselves immersed in darkness or anxiety and don鈥檛 know what to do,鈥� said Christalee Froese, founder of the More Joy Movement.
After suffering a nervous breakdown in 2011, Froese has made it her mission to get concrete mental health information out to the public.
鈥淚鈥檓 living proof that there is help, there is recovery and there can be 鈥榤ore joy鈥� after going through even the worst of mental-health struggles,鈥� said Froese, who launched the More Joy Movement in 2019 after her book Journey to Joy struck a chord throughout the province.
Froese says with COVID-19 isolation and stress in full force this year, the need for mental health information is greater than ever.
鈥淗ealth Canada predicts that 11 million Canadians will experience high levels of stress related to the COVID pandemic,鈥� said Froese. 鈥淭hat's (almost) one in three of us, so when you are at a traffic light and you are surrounded by traffic, you are also surrounded by many people who are living with stress, anxiety and depression.鈥�
The More Joy Movement is launching More Joy Coping Cards and COVID Care Kits to mark World Mental Health Day. The cards 鈥� which were created by mental health professionals and reviewed by social workers and psychologists (including Dr. Katherine Owen, clinical director of the Saskatchewan Health Authority鈥檚 Online Therapy Team) 鈥� are a deck of 30 cards with mental health information, coping tips and next steps.
The scientifically researched cards (created in partnership with Ontario鈥檚 Tina Chan, the creator of Panic, Stress and Anxiety cards) spell out exactly what depression and anxiety are, and offer tips about what can help. Words of support come from famous Canadians such as Olympic rower Silken Laumann, a depression survivor, and NHL goalie Clint Malarchuk, a suicide-attempt survivor.
鈥淭hey are small cards on a keychain so the idea is that you would put them in your backpack, purse or car to have in case something like a panic attack hits, or if you just need some encouragement on a tough day,鈥� said Froese, adding that Saskatchewan Polytechnic has ordered 150 coping cards for students in one of its programs.
鈥淟ots of people have approached me in despair because they know I have felt as dark and down as they are feeling and my go-to is to give them a set of coping cards because it spells out in black and white what you can do to cope, when to get help and where to find it.鈥�
The affordable prices of the coping cards ($20) and COVID Care Kits ($45) were made possible thanks to the Conexus Credit Union who awarded the More Joy Movement as a Kindness Capital Fund recipient this spring. The coping cards are being packaged in COVID Care Kits which can be delivered within Regina to friends, family members and co-workers.
The kits include a 鈥楬uckit Bucket鈥� for worries (a coping tip suggested by Harvard Medical School), as well as local 鈥榡oy鈥� cookies, masks and Froese鈥檚 book. Two dollars from the sale of every kit will go to help with the cost of counselling for those who are not covered by a work plan.
In addition, Froese鈥檚 book, which is currently in its third printing, is being incorporated into JoyLab 2.0 at the Saskatchewan Science Centre. Launch night on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Saskatchewan Science Centre will feature an in-person talk by Froese. Tickets include a set of coping cards and are $20 at sasksciencecentre.com. More Joy Coping Cards and Froese鈥檚 Journey to Joy book will be sold at the Science Centre gift shop as well.
To order More Joy Coping Cards or COVID Care kits online, visit morejoy.ca.
