Family Fun Dayz at McNab’s Corn Maze, originally planned for Saturday October 22nd, has been cancelled due to excessive rain and ongoing storms. The event vendors were not able to access the area to setup. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. We will reschedule and appreciate your ongoing support!  — Vancouver Island Mental Health Society

“You can’t break down over everyone who dies because there’s a guy going down like every week,” says Drake Smith

VICTORIA — Drake Smith knew he was going to overdose. He was in a bathroom downtown. His friends had told him to only do half a hit, but if you only do half, he said, you can’t get the same rush. So he did the whole thing. The heroin was laced with fentanyl, an opioid up to 100 times stronger than heroin.  Read the rest of this article at Times Colonist…

Study from Mental Health Commission of Canada warns that costs for crisis care could spike

Canada must match its multicultural, open-door immigration policy with tailored mental health services or face inflated costs for crisis care down the road, warns a new report being released today. The sweeping study by the Mental Health Commission of Canada, obtained by CBC News, finds that immigrants generally arrive with better mental health than the Canadian-born population — something referred to as the “healthy immigrant effect.”  Read the rest of this article at CBC…

Millennials – those employees in their mid-20s and 30s – are contributing to a pro-active conversation on workplace health in general – one more oriented toward preventative medicine, positive mental health and well-being

Last summer, when Starbucks began hearing from employees at five forums across the country, the company didn’t expect mental health to become the top talking point. The forums were targeted to staff between the ages of 18 and 24, and, hosted by the company executives, were an invitation to discuss youth issues. But in each city, their employees kept bringing it up – not only struggles with depression and anxiety, but grief, work-life balance, care-giving stress.  Read the rest of this article at The Globe and Mail…