The Municipality of Brighton has organized a week of forums next month meant to highlight and address mental health concerns in the community.
During the week of June 6, the municipality will gather community leaders in the area of mental health for Brighton’s inaugural Mental Health in Motion series of forums to highlight awareness and knowledge of mental health issues.
Brighton Mayor Brian Ostrander said he’s heartened by the overwhelming response from community leaders in the realm of mental health to the municipality’s mental health initiative.
“I’m excited by the involvement of all of to the various partners, to the library to the churches, to the school board and health unit. It’s exciting to see so many of our community partners come together for what they see as an incredibly important initiative in our community,” said Mayor Ostrander.
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone in myriad ways leading to increased levels of anxiety, anger, and frustration in the community, noted Mayor Brian Ostrander. The forums are a way to place mental health concerns on the front burner and bring them to light.
Mayor Ostrander said a conversation with a Brighton shop owner in reference to an incident further galvanized in his mind the need to address mental health issues that have risen in the community throughout the pandemic.
“I had a concerned shop owner reach out to me regarding an incident that happened regarding some high school students. As a result of that I reached out to the OPP inspector and the principal at the high
school and began a long dialogue with those groups about their concerns around mental health as it relates to students. I also began to realize at that time we were all feeling various levels of anxiety and concern. I thought it’s time to highlight this and probably something we should have done 10 years ago in terms of highlighting mental health concerns for our community as they have been on the rise. Certainly the pandemic has created a peak of concern for those in response services from enforcement to those in critical care,” said Mayor Ostrander.
With the blessings of Brighton council to pursue a series of mental health forums, Mayor Ostrander reached out to the library, churches, Northumberland Hills Hospital, school boards, the public health unit, and the mental health response team at the OPP to gauge their interest. All were quick to jump on board.
“I can tell you the agencies I reached out to were 100 per cent responsive. They were all eager to begin a dialogue, have a conversation of what we can do from a customer-facing point of view so to speak. How to get the public involved and we all know someone who deals with mental health issues, and maybe we don’t know who that person is quite frankly but we all know, whether we know it or not, we all know someone who is dealing with mental health issues and maybe significant mental health issues. So, there certainly is a want from a provider point of view to be able to reach out to everyone and say here are the signs, here’s what we should be looking for, and if you’re experiencing these concerns, here is a phone number to call, and here are the professionals to reach out to,” said Mayor Ostrander.
The list of metal health forums in Brighton is as follows:
• Tuesday, June 7 at 6:30 p.m. – Brighton Public Library. Chat with TJ Ruberto, local poet, as she reads through ‘Pieces of my Mind’, a poetic journey through her struggles and triumphs with Bipolar II Disorder.
• Wednesday, June 8 at 6:30 p.m. – Trinity-St. Andrew’s United Church. Speaker panel consisting of:
Winnie Visser (Moderator) – Registered Psychotherapist;
Amy Lett – Mental Health Clinician – Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board;
Liesje Wagner – Sexual assault survivor – Author;
Rev. Teresa Burnett-Cole – Indigenous Community Trainer – Glebe-St. James United Church;
Frank Blanchett – Educator (retired)/Suicide Prevention speaker – Corrections Canada
• Thursday, June 9 at 10:30 a.m. – Brighton Public Library. Join Penny and Terry for a song and story hour celebrating our wild and wonderful feelings.
Mayor Ostrander hopes Mental Health in Motion will become an annual event in Brighton, but that’s yet to be decided.
“That would be my vision, but I dream in technicolour, and I like to hope that we think we can make things happen more often. But certainly this is not an initiative that should be a one-time thing. This is something we should be talking about more often. Frankly more often than annually, but if it is annually I would be very pleased,” he said.
(Written by: Alan Rivett)