Family Forum Newsletter Spring 2015

VOLUME 5 The Family Advisory Council of Parkwood Institute Mental Health Care and Southwest Center for Forensic Mental Health Care

Family Forum Newsletter

Summer 2015 Inside this issue

1. Stand Up for Mental Health performance!

2. The Family Advisory Council honour a retiring leader

3. Wellness day event/Caring side by side 4. Comment boxes and Research half day

event 5. A positive encounter with a caring Security staff/ TVO program on mental health in the family 6. Who is who and what do they do? 7. Recovery oriented practice 8. Family Resource Centre Services for families

9. Calendar of events

The Guelph troupe of newly trained performers present at Brescia University College By Laurel Lamarre

On March 27, I had the pleasure to attend the Stand Up for Mental Health comedy show at Brescia University College. For everyone who did not have the opportunity to see this show, you sure missed out on lots of laughter! The performers were graduates of the Stand Up for Mental Health program from Guelph, Ontario. The founder of the program, David Granirer, also was pre-sent and participated in the performance. What a remarkable person and teacher, his students did a superb job!

David now teaches the Stand Up for Mental Health program to mental health consumers, he works with mental health organizations in Canada, the U.S. and Australia to train Stand Up for Mental Health groups. He is also the author of “Happy Neurotic, How Fear and Angst Can Lead To Happiness and Success”.

The show on March 27 was very well attended. It was refreshing to hear individuals with lived experience of mental health, perform a short comic skit, using their personal experience and making the audience laugh. It takes a lot of courage to get up on stage, and

make people laugh using personal stories. The performers were all very unique, but shared a common theme of mental

illness, either living with a mental illness or supporting a loved one.

All the performers did a very good job at entertaining the

audience and while stamping out the stigma that is associat-ed with mental illness.

Thank you to all the troupe who truly entertained the audi-ence and we hope to have the opportunity to once again enjoy such a funny performance. For more information visit

the website: www.standupformentalhealth.com

D is for Dedication to the success of the Family Advisory Council and to the people

you serve – and for your Doctorate

E is for Educating us about mental illness and the operation of the mental health

care system; for Exhibiting Exemplary leadership; for Expecting high standards of Excellence from your staff; and for Expertise in your chosen field

B is for Being behind us when we needed you and for your Belief that families play

an integral role in the well-being of those they love

B is for Being a conduit to senior management

I is for the Information you so readily share with us

E is for Empowering us as families

C is for Compassion for the people we care about

O is for “On top of” trends in mental health - and “On top of” your e-mail

R is for Responsiveness to our questions and requests

R is for the Respect you show others and we have for you

I is for the Integrity you model for us and for your peers

N is for Never being too busy to help us with a personal issue

G is for Guidance you have provided us over the years

The members of the Family Advisory Council honoured Deb Corring on April 13th and thanked her for all her years of dedication and guidance to the group. As a send off to her retirement, the family members demonstrated their ap-preciation using the letters in her name to highlight some very important at-tributes of Deb’s, which the council members valued.


Participating in the first annual Wellness Day at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital by Laurel Lamarre

Marion Gerull—Oxford-Elgin Child & Youth Centre

Display of the Family Resource Centre

On May 6, The Family Resource Centre at Parkwood Institute’s Mental

Health Care was invited to put up a display with other agencies at St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital to promote our services. It was a great

opportunity to connect with other groups and learn what services these agencies and programs offered. There was a wide range of displays with

great mental health information and many visitors stopped by the dis-play boards and obtain further information. Along with the display

boards, mini educational sessions were held on numerous mental health

topics for anyone to attend.

I had the opportunity to take a tour, along with Marion Gerull who is

with the Oxford-Elgin Child & Youth Centre, of the mental health inpa-tient unit at the Elgin Hospital and was impressed with the beautiful en-

vironment and atmosphere of the unit. Thank you Amy for the tour of the unit!

I wish to thank Anne Belamare for inviting us to set up a display to pro-mote the services that are available for families and Lesley Tishcler-Draper of the organizing committee for all their hard work with the first

annual Wellness Day! We hope to be invited at next year’s event!

Caring side by side: patients at Parkwood Insti-tute share their personal stories

Brett talks about his story living

with a mental illness

Linda talks about her story living with acquired brain injury

Parkwood Institute serves patients with a

broad range of physical and mental health

care needs. Now that we're together on

one site, it is more important than ever for

us to understand how we can best support

these patients and each other. To help with

this understanding, please view the follow-

ing video of patients sharing their stories

and leaders providing an overview about

the patients that are served at Parkwood

Institute.

Watch the video Caring side by side video on You Tube at: https://youtu.be/sjpFPs9dgHc


YOUR COMMENTS PLEASE!!

Christine Boyd, member of the Family Advisory Council

next to the comment box at Parkwood Institute for Mental

Health

Comment box at Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental

Health Care

In wanting to create an environment that meets the patients needs as well as getting feedback on

what works and what can be improved, St. Joseph’s wants to provide family members, visitors and patients the opportunity to give us feedback. Comment boxes can be found at both Park-

wood Institute’s Mental Health Care Building and the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care. At Parkwood Institute, the comment box is located on the main floor just past the registra-

tion desk on the column beside the glass enclosure of the court yard. As pictured below you can see that it is left of the elevators.

At Southwest Centre the comment box is located on the column that a person would see just before exiting the

building. The comment cards invite comments, suggestions and feedback. The boxes are checked weekly and the comment cards are sent to the appropriate department for follow up.

Mental Health Research Half Day—September 25, 2015

Mark your calendar for the upcoming Mental Health Research Half Day. This event has become very well attended by family members who are quite encouraged to hear about the strides being made in mental health research and that their loved one may benefit from the research being conducted at Parkwood Institute.

The Mental Health Research Committee is pleased to announce that the 16th Annual Research Half Day will be held on Friday, September 25, 2015 in the Auditorium at Parkwood Institute’s Mental Health Care Building from 12:00 to 4:00 pm. The 11th Annual Tony Cerenzia Research Lecture will feature Dr. Edward Coffey, presenting: “An Overview on Neurostimulation: Current and Future Approaches”.

Dr. Edward Coffey

A positive encounter with a caring security staff by Laurel Lamarre and Family Member

Upon entering Parkwood Institute’s Mental Health Care Building, the first encounter one has is with security personnel. You may wonder why that is. First and foremost it is

to ensure the safety and security of everyone that enters the facility. Security will ask for your name and or the purpose of the visit in order to ensure that each person

registering upon arrival is accounted for. Should there be an emergency in the building, they will know who is here.

I wish to introduce you to Paul, who has had a very positive impact with a con-cerned family member visiting her loved one for the first time. This family member shared how overwhelmed and anxious she was, regarding her son and the care he

would receive here. She was leaving the building after a visit with her son, feeling con-fused and not sure where to turn for help. The first person she encountered on the way past security, was Paul. Paul noticed the pain and stress in her eyes and gently offered

her some kind words. He said, “Don’t worry, I have seen many individuals who are your son’s age, he will pull through, just

hang in there.”

This family member stated that this gave her a tremendous feeling of hope, and she thanked him for his encouraging words. She mentioned to Paul that she wished there was some help and support for parents. Paul imme-

diately told her about the Family Resource Centre, and showed her where it was located. He mentioned that the staff Family Liaison would be able to provide support to parents, and could meet with her if she wished.

Without the help and kind words from Paul, this family member would not have known about the existence of the Family Resource Centre and the support available there. The few extra minutes that Paul took to really listen to her concerns, ended up making a big difference in her overall experience at the mental health care building. We would like to thank Paul for reaching out, and helping to make this family member feel welcomed and supported here at our facility.

TVO program: Mental Illness in the family

In this TVO program, host, Steve Paikin speaks with mothers, Madhuri Ramakrishman (Parent Peer Group Facilitator), whose son lives with schizophrenia and Sarah Cannon (Parents for Chil-dren’s Mental Health) whose daughter was diagnosed as having bipolar at age five. Both moth-ers share their experience with accessing services for their children and speaks about their ad-

vocacy today.

Steve also speaks with Wayne Skinner, Deputy Clinical Director at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Care in Toronto who brings some historical background on how families were seen by professionals but also the importance of involving families in supporting their loved one.

Sherry McKibbon-Thomas is a psychiatric nurse at Toronto East General Hospital who facilitates a support group for family members. She brings her experience of the benefits of providing education on mental health for families who are supporting their love one. Anita Szigeti is a mental health lawyer and she shares her expertise with the legal system and mental health. This is a program that bring the perspectives of families who have a loved one with a mental illness and professionals who work in the mental health field. Visit the link above to view the whole program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLjGgMzC1fY&feature=player_detailpage


In the upcoming newsletters, we wish to promote awareness of the great staff and services that we may come into contact with and their roles at Parkwood’s Institute for Mental Health Care and South-west Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care. Some may be familiar to you and some may not. We hope this section helps and assists you with understanding the various teams and their roles.

By: Laurel Lamarre and Rachel Hudson


Cindy and Gabriele are the staff members who work at the Central Registration desk at Parkwood Institute’s Mental Health Care Building. These wonderful ladies have a very busy role registering all outpatients who have appointments within the facility. They also direct people to where their appoint-ments are held, and help patients and families to find their way. It is not unusual to see Cindy or Gabriele taking the time to escort someone to the location of their appointment.

We are told that this helps visitors to feel more at ease, and makes it a more welcoming experience for those coming here for the first time. Part of their role is to register patients who are seeing their clinician, attending an appointment for lab work, or any other treatment that is done at this site. For many they are a familiar face- a source of information, help, and support. We truly appreciate the work that Cindy and Ga-briele are doing, and want them to know how valuable they are in making patients, visitors, and family members feel wel-come at Parkwood Institute.

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The Mental Health Commission of Canada releases guidelines for Recovery Oriented Practice by Laurel Lamarre & Christine Boyd

Did you know that the Mental Health Commission of Canada released “Guidelines for Recovery Oriented Practice “in June 2015? The Guidelines are intended to be used as a tool by a wide range of people including mental health professionals, policy and

decision makers, and people accessing mental health services.

“The Mental Health Commission of Canada has made it a priority to work with people from across the country on ways to improve mental health systems based on a recovery orientation. The Guide-lines concretize what a recovery-oriented system looks like and will help us build a holistic, person-centered and person-directed system, one that is grounded in best and leading practices and treats all people with dignity and respect.

The Guidelines have been written to provide a comprehensive Canadian reference docu-ment for understanding recovery and to promote a consistent application of recovery prin-ciples. They seek to build a common understanding, shared language and knowledge about recovery in order to:

• Provide a conceptual framework to help transform culture and practice.

• Promote the centrality of supporting people with lived experience, along with their families and caregivers, to play an active leadership role in their personal recovery; delivering services; program design and develop-ment; policy setting; recruitment and development of staff; and evaluating services.

• Identify principles, values, knowledge, skills and behaviour that underlie recovery-oriented services and supports.

Assist in implementing a recovery orientation across the country at a policy, program and practice level.

Provide a benchmark against which to measure service alignment with evidence-informed recovery-oriented practices. “

To access this document, please visit: http://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/initiatives/RecoveryGuidelines

On the Mental Health Commission of Canada website you can find this great You Tube video entitled Recov-ery: Hope Changes Everything, produced by The Manitoba Schizophrenia Society and published on June 10, 2015. The video “seeks to promote a conversation about what recovery is and what are the marks of a recov-ery–oriented mental health system. Recovery-oriented practice emphasizes hope, social inclusion, acceptance, choice, community participation, personal goal setting, and self-determination. “

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q2zkeirxK4

T he Family Resource Centre offers a variety of services for families their loved ones and mental health professionals, including:

A resource library which contains current books, magazines, videos, audio tapes, and pamphlets on most mental illnesses

An opportunity to meet one-on-one with another family member who has had a personal experience with men-tal illness and the mental health system

Participation in a support group comprised of 5-10 family members affected by mental illness and facilitated by a trained family member (every second Tuesday)

A free seven week family education course offered twice per year (Spring/Fall)

Speakers for community groups

Membership on the Family Advisory Council

A computer for family members to search for internet information on mental health

We are located at Parkwood’s Institute for Mental Health Care Building 550 Wellington Road—Room F2-191

The Family Resource Centre is open: Monday to Friday: 8 am - 4 pm (unless otherwise posted) Contact us at: 519 455-5110 Ext. 47440 or visit our webpage

http://www.sjhc.london.on.ca/mental-health-care/tillmann-family-resource-centre-and-family-advisory-council

Attention Family Members!

Did you know that we offer a FREE support group to family members who are supporting a loved one with a mental illness?

The Support Group meets every second Tuesday from 1:30 to 3:00, at Parkwood Institute’s Mental Health Care Building.

Interested in this group, call the Family Resource Centre at 519-455-5110, Ext. 47440 for further details.


http://www.sjhc.london.on.ca/mental-health-care/tillmann-family-resource-centre-and-family-advisory-council

Here is a list of some upcoming activities happen-ing involving the Family Advisory Council or oth-er groups to educate or assist patients and their families. Contact the Family Resource Centre at 519 – 455-5110 Ext. 47440

Canada Day—July 3

Civic Holiday—August 3

Labour Day—September 7

Family Advisory Council – September 14

Family Support Group – September 1, 15, 29

Research Half Day—September 25

If you are interested in donating to Parkwood Insti-tute’s Mental Health Care

Contact: Senior Development Officer 519-646-6100, ext. 65454

Donations for the Family Resource Centre can be made directly to:

St. Joseph's Health Care Foundation Attn: Dr. Wm. A. Tillmann Memorial Fund Resource Centre for Families 268 Grosvenor Street London, ON N6A 4V2

This newsletter is intended to be used as a communica-tion vehicle by the Family Advisory Council at St. Joseph’s mental health care facilities, with families who share com-mon interests and concerns.

The information herein is believed to be accurate; St. Jo-seph’s Health Care London, the Family Advisory Council, and the author(s) cannot be held responsible for any er-rors. It is the responsibility of the reader to work with pro-fessionals when making any clinical decisions

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Family Forum Newsletter Spring 2015

Documents

Transcript of Family Forum Newsletter Spring 2015