Living with Schizophrenia

To view the entire video (25.5 minutes), please click here.

Also see:

Living with Schizophrenia: A Call for Hope and Recovery

Overcoming Schizophrenia

Media Interviews for "Living with Schizophrenia" Documentary

From Ashley Smith's blog, Overcoming Schizophrenia:

May 2011, Ashley Smith and Dr. Xavier Amador shared their experience with being a part of the [Living with Schizophrenia: A Call for Hope and Recovery] documentary on radio and television interviews across the United States.

Also see:

Living with Schizophrenia: A Call for Hope and Recovery

The Tavis Smiley Show (Radio interview with Ashley Smith)

Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia's 22nd Annual Conference

New film -- Living with Schizophrenia: A Call for Hope and Recovery

I highly recommend this film.

From this website:

This film is dedicated to the approximately two million Americans living with schizophrenia, and to the people supporting them in their journeys of recovery.

"Living with Schizophrenia: A Call for Hope and Recovery" explores the lives of three people living with schizophrenia, a chronic brain disorder that can be severe and disabling and often is misunderstood and stigmatized. The documentary reveals their daily struggles, personal insights about the illness, and paths the mental health recovery process.

These are the stories of hope that aren’t making headlines.

"Living with Schizophrenia" was funded and produced by Janssen Division of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The people featured in the film present their own stories and ideas and were not compensated by Janssen to appear in the film. Janssen does not endorse any organization, source of information or project named in the film. Janssen products are not named or promoted in the film.

To view the film, please click here.

Also see:

"Living with Schizophrenia" Documentary Shines Spotlight on People with Schizophrenia: A Misunderstood and Stigmatized Illness

Overcoming Schizophrenia

Embracing My Mind, Inc. (EMM)

Rebecca Lyn Phillips (on Twitter)

Dr. Xavier Amador

Ashley Smith - Overcoming Schizophrenia

Ashley Smith (pictured) writes about her experience as the plenary speaker at the SSNS's 22nd Annual Conference on her blog, Overcoming Schizophrenia:

The 22nd Annual Conference: Mental Illness- Why Me?, hosted by the Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia (SSNS), was wonderful! The event took place on Friday, November 26, 2010 at Pier 21. The SSNS Executive Director, Dr. Stephen Ayer, gave me a warm welcome along with the Board of Directors. Dr. Ayer gave me a tour of the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I had an opportunity to dine with the Board of Directors and a couple of other speakers for the conference. The Board gave me a beautiful gift of a photograph taken by Mr. John Ross. In addition to that, I went to dinner with another presenter from the conference, Ms. Laura Burke and her family and friends.

Speaking at the conference enabled me to share my testimony of living with schizophrenia, and to give suggestions to other people directly affected by the illness. I titled my speech, A Distorted Perception to Reality: My Insight Into Recovery, because for me, schizophrenia forced me to think irrationally. However, the illness is manageable, and I am overcoming schizophrenia with the support of medication, support from others, and group therapy.

After delivering my speech, several people asked questions about my experience. I had a moment with some of the guests to elaborate on my experience and to exchange stories. Many of the participants thought my talk was inspirational, which I am glad because having an illness like schizophrenia can be tough, however, it is manageable.

Please click on the photograph to magnify it.

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.

The Timothy McLean and Ashley Smith tragedies: Getting beyond the fear and stigma of mental illness

A commentary recently released by the Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health (CAMIMH):

By Annette Osted, Executive Director, Registered Psychiatric Nurses of Canada

Two terrible tragedies have vaulted into public awareness during the past few weeks. Both involved individuals who suffered from a mental illness and elicited much response from the Canadian public. These tragic events have also highlighted grave weaknesses in our understanding and approach to mental health in Canada.

The first event was the court trial of Vince Li who carried out the horrendous killing of Timothy McLean on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba, but was found not criminally responsible for the murder because he suffers from a mental illness.

The other was the public release of a report on the death by suicide of 19 year old Ashley Smith in a federal women’s prison. The report concluded that her death was “preventable”, and partially provoked by instructions to correctional staff that they should not intervene with Ms Smith when she attempted to asphyxiate herself.

In the first case, we must ask ourselves whether the early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of Vince Li’s mental illness could have averted the death of an innocent person. Certainly the evidence is strong that people suffering from schizophrenia are rarely a danger to other people and, with proper treatment, can recover to live relatively normal lives.

Sadly this tragedy has mostly served to reinforce public stereotypes about the dangers of people with mental illness.

In the Ashley Smith case, a lack of understanding about the effects of prolonged emotional distress and the impact of incarceration on the emotionally vulnerable led to a situation where correctional officers stood by and watched as a young woman killed herself. It seems clear that better mental health training and protocols that protect people in emotional crisis could have averted this tragedy.

These two serious events reflect our society’s approach to mental health and mental illness. Mental health is, for the most part, ignored. We have programs that promote physical health, but little has been done to actively promote mental health, despite the fact that mental health challenges affect us all in one way or another.

One in four persons in Canada will require treatment for a mental illness and/or addiction. Most of us know someone who has suffered from depression, anxiety or other mental health problems. And yet mental illness is still an issue avoided in conversation.

Some have compared this avoidance to the vast public silence around HIV and AIDS twenty-five years ago or the hush that surrounded cancer in the past. With both diseases fear was a common factor: fear that we could ‘catch’ it; fear that the person who had ‘it’ was incurable and therefore doomed. Today, thanks to research, and open discussion on the part of survivors, we know that cancer and AIDS are illnesses that can be treated.

Mental illness today suffers from stigma that is at least comparable to that of cancer or AIDS in the past. There is still a tremendous reluctance in Canadian society to talk openly and learn about mental illness – and this must be overcome.

A strong mental health literacy program for all age groups would be a good beginning. Such a program would teach people what good mental health is, how to maintain it; how to identify the signs of declining mental health; what resources are available; and how to identify and assist people requiring help for their mental health issues.

We can only have tremendous compassion for Timothy McLean, his family, and all of the other victims on the bus that day. This compassion compels us as a society to use our institutions to investigate and institute measures that will safeguard Canadians from similar harm in the future.

But our compassion should also lead us to challenge the stigma against mental illness and other obstacles that so profoundly interfere with the treatment and recovery of affected people. We must also accept responsibility as a society to care for the victims of mental illness just as we care for people who have cancer or HIV/AIDS.

We cannot truly say that justice will be served in the cases of Timothy McLean and Ashley Smith until we also examine the fact that gaps in treatment, stigma, fear, discrimination and cultural perceptions of mental illness also played a role in these tragedies.


For additional information please contact:

Christopher Wilson
Media Relations
Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health
(613) 298-5464

Also see:

Canadian Alliance on Mental Illness and Mental Health issues open letter regarding recent mental health coverage in the Canadian media

It's an illness, not a monster