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Hon Judy Darcy and Myles Mattila May 10 2019

Hon Judy Darcy and Myles Mattila Discuss Mental Health and Addictions and how it relates to the MindRight APP.

 

Judy Darcy was first elected MLA for New Westminster in 2013, and was re-elected in 2017.

 

She was appointed British Columbia’s first and Canada’s only Minister of Mental Health and Addictions in July 2017. Judy has committed her career to building strong and vibrant communities, and has earned a reputation as an effective and compassionate leader.

 

As a tireless advocate, she has spent much of her life working to improve health care, seniors’ care, education and child care for British Columbians. She is committed to bringing people together to find innovative solutions to the issues that affect families to improve their lives.

 

As Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, she has taken urgent action to combat the devastating overdose crisis that is affecting families and communities across the province, including increasing the number of overdose prevention and supervised consumption sites and access to naloxone, and expanding treatment and recovery options. She is also forging ahead with her work to create a seamless and coordinated mental health and addictions system in British Columbia, so people can get the help they need, when they need it.

 

Judy has served in the B.C. Legislature since she was elected as a Member of the Legislative Assembly for New Westminster in May 2013. She served as the official opposition spokesperson for Health until her re-election in May 2017. During that time she championed many issues, including the initiative to establish a clinic for adult survivors of childhood cancer.

 

Judy also served as national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Canada’s largest union. She was the only woman to lead a national union for many years. Later, as secretary business manager for the Hospital Employees Union in B.C., Judy led negotiations that led to a historic settlement that established collective bargaining as charter protected rights for the first time for B.C. healthcare workers in 2008.

 

Born in Denmark, Judy’s family immigrated to Canada and shared many of the challenges that new Canadians face. She is married to human rights and labour lawyer Gary Caroline and has an adult son. She enjoys the Royal City Farmers’ Market, devouring good novels, hiking, kayaking, and watching the ever-changing activity and light on the Fraser River from her windows.

 

 

The Mindright.info Initiative

 

 

Mindright was founded by Myles Mattila 3 years ago. Myles is a Student, a mental health advocate, Jr Hockey player and he has recently added the Peer to Peer Support Program (P2P) to his extensive list of mental health initiatives.

 

The primary goal of P2P is to create a resource platform to help provide support and do even more for youth mental health. This initiative focuses on raising initial awareness, sourcing and coordinating an additional resource team, and helping youth access existing support associations within the community. Currently, we use hockey as one example and a common place where we have access to a large number of ‘players’ (i.e. like-minded youth) as we continually try to demonstrate that it is ‘ok’ to ask for help. We believe that, when dealing with mental health challenges, early intervention is crucial and this can be accomplished with P2P.

 

 

Vision

Help youth hockey players end the mental health stigma within their peer group, and assist players with seeking the necessary help they need from the P2P Resource Team and existing community resources.

 

Mission

Mindright.info focuses on helping promote wellness and positive living for young people through increasing community awareness and making use of existing mental health resources. We want to encourage young people to be open and engage in Peer to Peer conversation. We want to support, connect, and build ties with young people using hockey as a medium while creating a movement with a brand that makes mental health relatable and accessible

 

How we will achieve our Mission

While playing for the Kelowna Chiefs of the KIJHL, Myles will support this initiative and the Kelowna Chiefs will host four mental health awareness games this season that will feature P2P.

 

As a certified Jack.org speaker, Myles will use his skills to reach out to local schools and hockey teams to tell his story and extend his invitation to the P2P Program. He will encourage dialogue regarding mental health, provide details on existing mental health resources and promote Peer to Peer support.

 

We will continue to reach out and add support to a system that needs to enhance, promote, and provide mental health care for all.

 

We will encourage others to join us to support those in need as mental health does not discriminate.

 

 

 

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Uploaded on May 19, 2019