From Recovery to Discovery Mental Health Peer Support Group

Reflecting on the Finding Your Voice Workshop 

Thursday, November 24th, 2016

6:30pm to 8:30pm 

           

Community Room

Atlantic Superstore – Barrington Street

1075 Barrington Street

Halifax, Nova Scotia

The From Recovery to Discovery Mental Health Peer Support Group is open to anyone affected, either directly or indirectly, by any type of mental illness, and this includes family members and friends.

Free!

Image credit

Thursday, November 24th, 2016, 6:30 pm

Reflecting on the Finding Your Voice Workshop

Earlier this fall Healthy Minds Cooperative offered a 6 week workshop called “Finding Your Voice” which was about “…working on creating and  sharing our Recovery story. The program focussed on exploring  life experiences in a safe  and supportive environment, with the intention of  building confidence to allow one to share their story  with family, friends or even a wider audience, if they so desire.”

Alan McGrath, part-time facilitator with FR2D, led these workshops and this week he, along with 2 of the participants, will be sharing their experiences with us and perhaps providing a roadmap for us to Find our Own Voice

Sign up for weekly email notices for FR2D here:  http://bit.ly/29O1hFP

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About the From Recovery to Discovery Mental Health Peer Support Group

The From Recovery to Discovery (FR2D) Mental Health Peer Support Group is special because it moves beyond the expectation of simply existing with minimal symptoms of mental illness.  Our message is that we all have the opportunity to manifest our strengths, to recover a sense of empowerment, and to live with meaning and purpose.  Through the mutual sharing of our own wisdom and experience, we are reminded to reach for hope and fulfillment in our lives, and to help one another realize our potential.

                                                                               

The FR2D Mental Health Peer Support Group is open to anyone living with any type of mental illness or mental health problem.  There is no cost to attend.  The meeting format generally involves an interactive presentation on topics of interest to the group in the first hour, and a group discussion during the second hour. 

The FR2D Mental Health Peer Support Group's meeting flyer (PDF) can be downloaded by clicking here.

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please contact:

Todd MacMillan, Operations Support, Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, by phoning 902-465-2601 (toll free 1-800-465-2601) or sending an email to todd@ssns.ca; or

Laura Burke, Peer Support Facilitator, Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, by sending an email tocontact@ssns.ca.

From Recovery to Discovery Mental Health Peer Support Group

A Summer Picnic

Thursday, September 1, 2016

6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Community Room

Atlantic Superstore – Barrington Street

1075 Barrington Street

Halifax, Nova Scotia

The From Recovery to Discovery Mental Health Peer Support Group is open to anyone affected, either directly or indirectly, by any type of mental illness.

Free!

Thursday, September 1, 2016, 6:30 pm 

A Summer Picnic at Cornwallis Park in Halifax

Everyone Welcome!

Please note: We will meet in the Community room at the Superstore at 6:30pm and head over to the nearby Park together as a group.

You are invited to the From Recovery to Discovery Mental Health Peer Support Group’s Summer Picnic at Cornwallis Park in Halifax (corner of Barrington Street and South Street).  Come and enjoy some relaxing sunshine, informal peer support, and wonderful sandwiches.  Water and soft drinks will also be provided.  If you play a musical instrument, please bring it along!  In the case of rain, the picnic will be held indoors in the Community Room at the Atlantic Superstore - Barrington Street, 1075 Barrington Street, Halifax.

Sign up for weekly email notices for FR2D here:  http://bit.ly/29O1hFP

---

About the From Recovery to Discovery Mental Health Peer Support Group

The From Recovery to Discovery (FR2D) Mental Health Peer Support Group is special because it moves beyond the expectation of simply existing with minimal symptoms of mental illness.  Our message is that we all have the opportunity to manifest our strengths, to recover a sense of empowerment, and to live with meaning and purpose.  Through the mutual sharing of our own wisdom and experience, we are reminded to reach for hope and fulfillment in our lives, and to help one another realize our potential.

                                                                               

The FR2D Mental Health Peer Support Group is open to anyone living with any type of mental illness or mental health problem.  There is no cost to attend.  The meeting format generally involves an interactive presentation on topics of interest to the group in the first hour, and a group discussion during the second hour. 

The FR2D Mental Health Peer Support Group's meeting flyer (PDF) can be downloaded by clicking here.

If you have any questions, or would like more information, please contact:

Todd MacMillan, Resource Advisor, Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, by phoning 902-465-2601 (toll free 1-800-465-2601) or sending an email to todd@ssns.ca; or

Laura Burke, Peer Support Facilitator, Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, by sending an email to contact@ssns.ca.

Heart to Heartwood

An article published in today's edition of The Coast:

Part of the Mayworks Festival, Heartwood is a play that takes an honest look at one woman’s experience with schizophrenia.

By Kate Watson

The Doppler Effect’s Annie Valentina (left) and actor-writer Laura Burke (right).

It's a grey, damp Saturday in Halifax, and Theatre Nova Scotia's Living Room space on Agricola appears hushed and dark as well. Inside, Annie Valentina and Laura Burke have put in a long day of rehearsal on Burke's one-woman show Heartwood, and they're winding down.

Burke, a pig-tailed blonde sporting graceful feathered earrings and casual clothes in muted shades of grey and brown, is a playwright, actor, spoken word artist and soon-to-be licensed drama therapist. She has also been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Heartwood, which opens April 29 at The Bus Stop Theatre as part of the Mayworks Festival, is the story of Burke's journey from her diagnosis almost eight years ago, when she was a theatre student at Concordia University, through some very dark days of depression and psychosis to her eventual recovery and ongoing life with the disorder.

"There's no doubt that schizophrenia totally changed the trajectory of my life," says Burke. "I was at a point in my life where I was just beginning to feel like I was starting to be a real actor. Then I lost my ability to feel, to remember words, to be on a cognitive emotional level. I had to let go of the expected trajectory."

At first, doctors struggled to find exactly what was ailing Burke, and she describes the eventual diagnosis of schizophrenia as being both "a huge relief" in that she finally had an answer and "a real downer" because she felt saddled with a stigmatizing label.

Over the course of her recovery, challenging that stigma became very important to Burke, and she discovered that using creative means such as poetry and drama offered an effective way to do that. "I'm hoping that by writing about my experience with schizophrenia and sharing it with others, I'll be able to help people to reduce their own shame about it. I want to normalize it.

"It can be scary how people want you to be either a victim or a hero," she says. "I'm just a human wanting to be fully human."

The original version of Heartwood was written as Burke's masters' thesis, and Valentina, who is artistic producer with Halifax theatre company The Doppler Effect, became interested in the project when she directed a workshop version of it in 2012. That version evolved, with the help of Burke and local theatre artist Mary-Colin Chisholm, into a piece that was presented at the Douglas Psychiatric Institute in Montreal and at a psychosis-themed conference in Ottawa.

"There were no plans for production of it as a play at first, but I fell in love with the script and the concepts in it," recalls Valentina. Michael McPhee, creative director of The Doppler Effect, "and I both felt it was a really good project to take to the next theatrical level. It offers a gorgeous theatrical experience. The poetry of the writing and the imagery in it are simply gorgeous."

One of the most arresting recurring images in Heartwood is a tree which grows out of Burke's rib cage, a tree that stands for the challenges we all face and the burdens we all bear. "The tree represents something broader than mental illness," explains Burke. "Our past and suffering grows out of us and takes over. We often try to prune it back, but I think we just have to learn to grow with it and build something out of it."

Burke smiles and pulls a brilliant red coat around her shoulders. As she steps out onto the quiet street, a ray of sunshine bursts through the cold, grey sky.

Photograph by Ashley Marie Pike

Missed point of talk

A letter to the editor posted online today by SouthShoreNow.ca:

I wanted to acknowledge South Shore Now for reporting on an event held several weeks back — the AGM of the South Shore District Health Authority. At this event, I spoke about issues very close to my heart, and engaged in a lively discussion with some very caring and intelligent health-care workers and citizens.

Around the same time, I was asked to speak to a journalism class taught by a friend of mine at the Dartmouth Nova Scotia Community College. I was asked to speak on the representation of mental illness in the media. For this talk, I have chosen to highlight your article, entitled “Mental health advocate calls for collaborative approach to wellness.”

In this article by Keith Corcoran, the credibility of the speaker (myself) is challenged from the very top of the article by the rather sensationalist and jarring placement of the first line, which refers to my contemplation of suicide as a preteen. If such a detail needs to be mentioned (which, given the context of the talk I gave, it doesn’t) it could be somehow contextualized, or even placed further down in the article. It also refers to my experience with schizophrenia in terms that are not the current way to define a person who has been given said diagnosis.

Mr. Corcoran decided to refer to me as a “schizophrenic with a history of anorexia, anxiety and depression.” Unlike the other experiences, the schizophrenia piece of my life was not delegated to my history, but was instead how I was principally defined. I am an artist, a registered counsellor and psychotherapist intern, a public speaker and a person with a lived experience of schizophrenia — not a “schizophrenic.”

Indeed, my mental illness was the gateway to my understanding the mental health system from the inside, and was the reason I decided to become a clinician myself, but it was not the point of my talk at the AGM that night. The point of my talk was to help clinicians to remember why they got into the helping profession in the first place, to give my humble perspective, and to think about some directions we might take to keep ourselves in touch with why we continue to choose to help others.

It was essentially about mindfulness for mental health professionals. And although I made a provocative joke in my speech hinging on a concept that was omitted from this article, I would be careful in the future about the paraphrasing of critical statements about persons’ experiences with mental health care.

By missing the point of my talk, and by defining me as an illness first, person second, you have not only hurt me, but have hurt all of the other people who fight against the stigma of mental illness every day in your area. And for those who are already prejudiced about those who experience mental illness, well, you have given them one more juicy tidbit to gossip about.

LAURA BURKE

Halifax

Using Theatre to Illustrate and Explore Serious Mental Illness

A November 9th media advisory from the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia:

November 9, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Media Advisory

Living with serious mental illnesses featured in two original plays.

What

An Evening of Forum Theatre & Heartwood (by, Laura Burke)

Who

Jill Rogers, Catriona Wallace, Stephen Ayer, and Courtney Siebring perform an interactive piece of theatre that explores what it is like to live with a serious mental illness. The audience is invited to enter the world of the play – one filled with discrimination, condescension, and injustice – and create change.

Written and performed by Laura Burke, Heartwood is a one woman play that illustrates a young woman's struggles with serious mental illness and explores how she begins to heal from its impact through the use of humour, and through the discovery that giving back to others is exactly how she will recover, and reinstate meaning in her life.

When

Friday, November 9, 2012
7:30 pm to 10:00 pm

Where

5568 Cunard Street
Halifax, Nova Scotia


About the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia

The Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia works to improve the quality of life for those affected by schizophrenia through education, support programs, influencing public policy, and encouraging research.

In addition to the provincial office located in Dartmouth, the Society has chapters or support groups conducting monthly support group meetings in Cumberland County, Halifax Regional Municipality, Kings County, Lunenburg County, and Pictou County.

Media Contact

Dr. Stephen Ayer
Phone: (902) 465-2601
Email: ssns@ns.sympatico.ca

Inside mental illness: Schizophrenia

From the YouTube posting:

Laura has taken everything she learnt from her diagnosis with schizophrenia to help others accept their own mental illness. In 2009, she was awarded with the Inspiring Lives Award from the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia for her advocacy and work with various mental health organizations. Laura is currently pursuing a Masters in Drama Therapy from Concordia University in Montreal.

Superhero - A Visual Poem

One of the many comments posted on YouTube about this video:

Mental health is so hard to understand, so hard to grasp for everyone ... finally a short film, a beautiful poem, a true piece of art that can connect people with with the words and the feelings that are oh so hard to share. Thank you Hachey. Thank you Laura. You've done it right.

Posted by emptypink

Also visit:

Mark Vonnegut: "Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So" (Rebroadcast)

Laura Burke on CBC Radio's The Current

From the CBC Radio 1 program, The Current:

From the Heart

The story of a poet who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and her struggle to separate her medical condition from her muse.

To listen to the segment, please click here.

The SSNS's 22nd Annual Conference - Mental Illness: Why Me?

The Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia’s

22nd Annual Conference

Mental Illness: Why Me?

Held on Friday, November 26th, 2010

Joan Greenwood (left) receives the 2010 Janine Williams Memorial Bursary from Cecilia McRae, president of the SSNS.


Ashley Smith, Founder and Executive Director, Embracing My Mind, Inc.


Dr. Stan Kutcher, Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, Dalhousie University


Patrick Burke, QC, member of the SSNS Board of Directors, with Dr. Kutcher.


Aileen McGinty, Dip. Psych. (Open), M.T.A., Post-Graduate Diploma in Music Therapy, Certificate of Teaching, Dip.L.P., LL.B., M.A.








Phil Rogers, treasurer of the SSNS (left), with Dr. Tomas Hajek, Associate Professor & Dalhousie Clinical Research Scholar, Departments of Psychiatry and Anatomy & Neurobiology, Dalhousie University


Phil Rogers with Dr. Sherry Stewart, Killam Research Professor, Departments of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Community Health & Epidemiology, Dalhousie University


Left to right: Debby Gladstone, secretary of the SSNS, Ms. Laura Burke, MA Student in Creative Arts Therapies, Drama Therapy Option, Department of Creative Arts Therapies, Concordia University and Margaret Smith


Elainie Garland, vice president of the SSNS (left), with Andy Cox, Mental Health Advocate, IWK Health Centre and Member, Board of Directors, Mental Health Commission of Canada


Please click on any photography to enlarge it.

Photographs by Stephen Ayer.

Laura Burke named a 2010 Champion of Mental Health

From the 2010 Mental Illness Awareness Week website:

Champion - Youth

Laura Burke
Concordia University, Master's in Drama Therapy student



Ms. Burke [pictured above] has made outstanding contributions to the field of mental health in Canada, working to raise awareness, fight biases and stigma, and contribute to community organizations. She has given talks on recovery for the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program and acted as a peer support worker at Laing House, a drop-in centre for youth living with mental illness. When at Laing, she also ran a drama group and a writer’s circle, and was constantly inspired by the courage, resilience and determination of the youth she worked with.

In 2008 she recorded an album of her spoken word poetry about her journey through schizophrenia and recovery, and in 2009, she began her role at the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia as a peer support facilitator. Ms. Burke has showed continued dedication to the field of mental health, and has bravely drawn on her own experience with schizophrenia to positively impact her community.

Ms. Burke strongly believes that social inclusion, unconditional acceptance, and the opportunity to use creativity as a force of healing are invaluable, too often overlooked components of recovery. After graduation, Ms. Burke hopes to research and practice drama therapy to improve negative and cognitive symptoms in youth experiencing first episode psychosis.

Also see:

2010 Mental Illness Awareness Week (October 3rd to 9th)

2010 Champions of Mental Health

About the Champions of Mental Health Awards

Superhero - A Visual Poem

Photographs from the SSC National Conference in St. John's, NL

The Schizophrenia Society of Canada's (SSC) National Conference took place from July 26th to 28th, 2010, in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.

To download PowerPoint slides from some of the presentations made during the conference, please click here.




Stephen Ayer, executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia (left), Greg Zed, past president of the Schizophrenia Society of New Brunswick (centre), and Cecilia McRae, president of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia (right).




Anita Hopfauf, executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Saskatchewan. At the far right is Phil Rogers, treasurer of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia.




Laura Burke, peer support facilitator with the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, performs spoken word poetry during the conference banquet. Laura also received the SSC's 2010 Flag of Hope Award during the banquet.




Laura Burke at The Rooms, an art gallery and museum in St. John's.




View of the entrance to St. John's harbour from The Rooms.




At a conference with a theme of Social Inclusion: Well Beyond Recovery, we didn't have too look very far for signs of social prejudice.




The Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador.


Please click on any photograph to magnify it.

Your Recovery Journey: Train-the-Trainer Workshop

On September 15th, the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia held a full-day train-the-trainer workshop for the Schizophrenia Society of Canada’s new and innovative program, Your Recovery Journey. The training introduced participants to a five-session peer-support program focusing on recovery from mental illness. The Your Recovery Journey program builds on the premise that there is hope, that people with mental illness can get well, stay well for long periods of time, and do the things they want to do with their lives.

The program is designed to be co-facilitated by people who themselves have experience with mental illness and have also experienced recovery in their own lives. Collaboration with a recovery-oriented service provider or a family member is also an option to consider for delivery of the Your Recovery Journey program.

The train-the-trainer workshop was led by Chris Summerville, CEO of the Schizophrenia Society of Canada, and covered the content of the program, as well as providing helpful information and tips about bringing the program to life into the participant's communities.


Chris Summerville leading the Your Recovery Journey Train-the-Trainer Workshop in Halifax on October 15th.


A total of 39 participants attended the Your Recovery Journey Train-the-Trainer Workshop (a full house). In addition to those from HRM, participants from Kentville, Truro, Windsor, and Yarmouth were also in attendance.


Participants watch one of the videos provided as content in the Your Recovery Journey program.

Please click on any photograph to magnify it.

The Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia will be delivering Your Recovery Journey in Halifax beginning in mid-October 2009. Please contact Laura Burke at 465-2601, 1-800-465-2601 (toll-free in Nova Scotia) or ssns@ns.sympatico.ca for further information.

Photographs by Stephen Ayer.

No need to fear or hide a mental illness

A letter to the editor posted today on SouthShoreNow.ca:

I wanted to acknoweldge Robert Hirtle for the kind and congratulatory article outlining the Mental Health Foundation's Inspiring Lives Awards, of which I was a recipient. I must say, it came as a surprise when my mother phoned me in Halifax to inform me of the article, entitled "Honoured for inspiring others."

At first, I was a little nervous about the mention of my personal health history, but was somewhat prepared for it, as I knew that the Inspiring Lives Awards was a public event.

However, although depression is becoming more accepted and talked about, it occurred to me that most people who would be reading the article may not be aware of what schizophrenia is all about. Although it differs in presentation and severity from person to person, more than two-thirds of people living with the illness will significantly recover. I feel blessed to be a part of this group.

Also, readers may not be aware that there is a support group in Bridgewater, a chapter of the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia, which offers education and support to mental health consumers and their families.

And, if you or a loved one is suffering from distressing or unusual symptoms involving paranoia, hallucinations or simply a decline in emotional responsiveness or intellecual functioning, the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program in Halifax will take no longer than one week to schedule an assessment. They then direct the person to additional supportive services, and provide an appropriate medication and psychosocial regime.

For the last year and a half, I have been working as a peer support worker at Laing House in Halifax, a drop-in support centre for youth with mental illness, and I want to emphasize my observations of how miraculous yet common recovery from serious mental illness can be.

Although my recovery was celebrated at Inspiring Lives, I am not so unique. In fact, most people with severe mental illness do recover and give back to their communities.

Mental illness need not be feared or stigmatized, but should be out in the open, so those people who are suffering can experience inclusion in their communities, and can get the help they need. If anyone is interested in knowing more information on the topic, the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia has a website which features a wealth of information at http://www.ssns.ca.

I hope the article illustrated to your readers that mental illness need not be a life sentence, but merely an obstacle, a challenge and an opportunity for growth.

Laura Burke [pictured]
Halifax

Photograph courtesy of SouthShoreNow.ca.

Laura Burke - This Much I Know

Laura Burke, an artist who read her original poetry at the 2008 SSNS Annual Conference, has released This Much I Know, a CD of spoken word poetry (including the poem she read at the Conference). The CD is available for purchase for $15.00 by contacting the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia at (902) 465-2601 or by sending an email to ssns@ns.sympatico.ca. To view a YouTube videos of Laura performing, please click here and here.

Ms. Burke has been kind enough to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each CD to the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia.



Click on the image to magnify it.