It’s Mental Health Week!

Get Ready to #GetReal about how you feel…

Today marks the kick-off to the Canadian Mental Health Association’s 70^th annual Mental Health Week. This year the focus is getting in touch with your emotions and naming how you feel: Name it, don’t Numb it.

Now, more so than ever, the mental health needs of our communities are at their greatest. Exacerbated by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, 42% of Canadians interviewed reported that their mental health has deteriorated, with 13% of all people interviewed reporting an increase in substance use, and 30% of people interviewed with pre-existing mental health challenges increasing their alcohol intake.

To support our community’s growing mental health needs, Connections Place Society continues to offer the unique and innovative in-person programming it’s known for: providing people with the opportunity to connect to a community of peers while taking part in the daily operations of the clubhouse. Our focus continues to be driven by the idea of ‘disrupting isolation by staying connected’, and it’s making an impact. So far, in 2021, we have:

• provided 631 meals
• had 619 visits from our membership
• increased our membership to 187

As part of our recent work to raise awareness for mental health, Connections Place has collaborated with two great local partners.

Throughout the course of this year, Connections Place has partnered with the United Way of Greater Victoria’s ‘Blue Love’ campaign to help raise $1,000,000 to support mental health in Victoria by the end of 2021. If you’d like to learn more about this work, click here.

And this week, we’ve collaborated with a wonderful local peer-based group—Vancouver Island Healing Art—to showcase art on our social media channels inspired by this year’s mental health week theme: #GetReal about how you feel. See our Facebook and Instagram pages for upcoming posts.

As always, we want to thank all of our donors, supporters, and community members for helping us continue to provide much needed mental health supports in our Victoria community.

Chris Forester
Executive Director