In this month’s Currents…Community good will goes a long way to help VIMHS residents…Anne Turner’s journey with art therapy gets public viewing…VIMHS opens 9-bed sobering centre in Campbell River…VIMHS joined the 2017 suicide prevention awareness campaigns…Peter Giovando retires from the VIMHS board of directors…Growing up with a parent with mental illness: Natasha Box’s story…Service expansion…new workshops…strategic planning…and more news.
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Most kids their age would be involved in after-school activities or hanging out at the mall. These adolescents, however, go home to look after a family member with a physical or mental disability. Their contributions are largely unheralded, Elizabeth Renzetti writes, and many have complex needs of their own

Abbigail Wright-Gourlay’s life is different from the average 14-year-old’s. She babysits and has a paper route, two things that are common enough for a teenager. On top of those jobs, though, she has another, much less visible one: She is a caregiver to her twin brother, Andrew.  Read the rest of this article at The Globe and Mail…

Here are 27 ways you can support someone who's struggling with mental illness from real people w/ mental illnesses https://t.co/5pVDwgiwVl

— CMHA – Calgary (@CMHACalgary) October 16, 2017

Programs which address homelessness first, then provide supports, are more effective and economical than those requiring people to meet milestones (such as sobriety) prior to being housed

Lethargy is an easy pitfall when considering the issue of homelessness in B.C. We have a societal malaise from decades of inadequate government inertia and the feelings of futility that follow. We become accustomed to stepping past our fellow citizens, huddled under awnings and in doorways. We start to accept that this is “just the way things are.”  Read the rest of this article at The Vancouver Sun…

[image: A homeless camp in Vancouver this past summer. NICK PROCAYLO / PNG]