On a sunny day in mid-April, I participated in the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario’s (MDAO) annual Regional Forum. On the shores of Lake Simcoe in Innisfil, ON, the Forum gathered about 30 program facilitators working at mental health groups from all across Ontario, including Thunder Bay, Barrie, Kingston, Guelph, and Toronto. I was lucky to have been invited to share CREST.BD’s learnings, but I was equally (or more!) lucky to share in the wisdom of all the folks in attendance, many of whom were candid and proud to bring their lived experience to the forefront of their work – this valuing of lived experience is, in fact, the crux of our wonderful partnership with the MDAO.
Andrew Kcomt, MDAO Research Consultant, at the MDAO forum.
On the note of partnerships, the Forum’s theme this year was Collaboration. MDAO facilitator Bart Campbell kicked off the day by sharing the MDAO’s new website, the Ripple Affect; the Ripple Affect is an online home for people to share their stories about what they do personally to make a difference in mental health. While the Ripple Affect showcases stories of people whose formal work is in improving the lives of people living with mental health conditions, it’s also a place to celebrate the incredible voluntary mental health contributions made by people across Canada — especially in Ontario.
Although it was a bit challenging to follow Bart’s energetic lead, whether in presentations or karaoke (also another highlight of the weekend), I was really excited to share some of the new products of the CREST.BD program of research with the group bright and early on Saturday morning. It was very fitting with the Collaboration theme that I was able to present our Quality of Life Tool and Bipolar Wellness Centre to so many excellent program facilitators and let their imaginations run with how it could fit into their practice. The MDAO was instrumental in making these sites a success. In fact, many of the people in the room had been involved in consultations on the site designs or in our Wellness Centre Workshops in Ottawa, Kingston, and Toronto in 2015.
Andrew and Nusha, partners at work and in karaoke.
Finally, I felt privileged to be able to share our learnings about working as partners with youth on the Bipolar Youth Action Project. It is a project that is close to my heart mainly because of the wonderful collaboration that we experienced on it with youth and our partner organizations, the Bipolar Disorder Society of BC in Victoria BC, and mindyourmind in London, Ontario. It was rewarding to hear MDAO Forum attendees found our Bipolar Youth Action Project to be an exciting, motivating, and inspiring example of youth engagement. I wished that a Youth Action Group project member could have been there to present with me and give a youth perspective on the project, and also to hear MDAO’s enthusiasm for including youth as equal partners in planning and facilitation.
Thank you MDAO for helping us get the word out about youth engagement in action, and for being such as outstanding partner to CREST.BD.
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Thank you so much Nusha and the CREST.BD team for taking the time to come out and engage our regional affiliates. Your expertise and practical tools truly have a direct impact on our participants on their road to recovery. It truly is always a pleasure working with your team. Thank you!
Thank you Andrew, and thank you for the work you do. We couldn’t ask for a better partnership!
Superfantastic!…Thank Nusha.
Thank you so much Bart!