Fostering a culture of understanding and acceptance of people with mental illness is the foundation to building psychologically healthy and safe workplaces. This workshop is designed to help build comfort in talking about mental health and mental illness, and learn how to respond in a supportive way to co-workers who may be experiencing a mental illness. This 1 to 2-hour workshop is suitable for employees and general audiences. This workshop begins by building an understanding of the continuum of mental health, and the risk and protective factors that influence our current state of mental health. It uses personal stories to help build awareness of what it is like to experience mental illnesses like anxiety disorders or depression at work. This workshop often includes an interview with a guest speaker to share their experience of living and working with a mental illness. You’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and leave with a list of resources available to help support your mental health. The workshop fee is $500 to $750. This workshop is available for delivery across BC by the following certified trainers: Julia Kaisla, Laura Allen, Gord Menelaws, Margaret Tebbutt, Lucette Wesley. To learn how to bring this workshop to your workplace, please contact Julia.kaisla@cmha.bc.ca or 604-678-8952 Our certified trainers are also available for speaking events, custom workshops and to help you plan and implement your workplace mental health strategy. Contact us to learn more!
Provincial
Bounce Back®: For Adults
Direct link to self refer to Bounce Back https://bouncebackbc.ca/covid19/
Feeling overwhelmed, tired or like you’re in a rut? Are you more worried than usual or find yourself feeling angry more easily? Bounce Back® may be able to help. Bounce Back® teaches effective skills to help adults overcome early symptoms of depression, and improve their mental health. Participants can learn skills to help combat unhelpful thinking, manage worry and anxiety, and become more active and assertive. Available for free across BC, Bounce Back® has been shown to help reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety by half, and over 90% say they would recommend it to a friend or family member. Bounce Back® offers two forms of help:
- An instructional video
- A customized series of workbooks with 4 to 6 coaching sessions by phone
The video is available in English, Mandarin and Cantonese and is available through your doctor or by calling 1-866-639-0522 (toll-free). The Bounce Back® workbooks are available in English with telephone coaching in English, French, Cantonese, or Punjabi. Please talk to your doctor to request a referral to Bounce Back® workbooks and coaching. Learn more:
Info for practitioners:
Bounce Back® is led by CMHA BC with funding provided by the Provincial Health Services Authority.
Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses
Mental health begins where you live, work and play – and also where you learn. Promoting the mental health of post-secondary students, faculty and staff goes beyond providing individual support. We must look at the impact of the campus community: the words spoken, the policies and decisions made, the actions taken, the organizational culture and systems created, and the learning environments sustained.
Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses supports BC campuses in developing networks, activities and policies to promote mental health and healthier relationships with alcohol and other drugs among post-secondary students.
Co-led by CMHA BC and the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses is a vibrant province-wide Community of Practice, which brings together persons who share the common goal of promoting campus mental health and healthier relationships with substance use. Our growing community includes students, campus professionals, faculty, administrators, community members, government partners and more.
Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses helps bring research and theory into practice, hosting a variety of in-person and virtual learning events throughout the year, including webinars, workshops and the annual Summit. What’s more, our members are invited to connect, discover, inspire and co-create together through the use of innovative social learning activities.
Summit 2021, We Belong to Each Other: Cultivating Campus Communities for Mutual Well-Being, will take place virtually from February 22-25, 2021. This year’s Summit will strive to take a deeper look into our mutual well-being as we learn how to come together to build and strengthen our campus communities. From international students to part-time and mature students, from health promotion teams to administrative staff, from disability services to financial services; we all belong to our campuses, and we all can contribute to creating a sense of belonging within our communities. Registration is now open.
Learn more:
- Visit the Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses website
- Download the Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses information card
- Read Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses: A Decade of Change
Healthy Minds | Healthy Campuses is managed and coordinated by CMHA BC on behalf of the BC Partners for Mental Health and Addictions Information. The lead partners are CMHA BC and the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research.
Scholarships and Bursaries
The application period for our 2020 bursaries and scholarships is now closed, and winners will be contacted by September. The next application period will be in Summer 2021.
Since 1982, CMHA BC has been helping people with mental illness further their pursuit of post-secondary education through our scholarship and bursary programs. We are committed to lowering access barriers and would like to ensure that these scholarships and bursaries are available to anyone in British Columbia with lived experience who is pursuing higher education. Learn more about our values.
Several awards are available each year to BC post-secondary students who live with mental illness or addiction. Applicants may only apply for one of the awards listed below in a given year. Only electronic submissions will be accepted.
Lorne Fraser Scholarship for Mental Health Promotion
Scholarships worth $1000 and $2000 are available to two post-secondary students entering the second, third, or fourth year of an undergraduate program, or any stage of a graduate program, whose education and career goals are related to mental health promotion.
Lorne Fraser Educational Bursary
Several $700 bursaries are available to students for the tuition costs of a post-secondary education at an accredited BC institution.
Mental Health Fine Arts Bursary (FAB) Award
Two $1,000 bursaries available for students enrolled or accepted to a post-secondary program in the field of fine art.
Indigenous Mental Health Fine Arts Bursary (FAB) Award
Held at Vancouver Foundation, one $1,000 bursary for an Indigenous post-secondary student 18 years or older, who is pursuing fine arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design and has accessed support/mental health services.
Janice Lee Blue Wave Youth Bursary
Several $700 bursaries are available for BC youth under the age of 20 who have experienced a significant mental health or substance use challenge.
Please note: Submissions received by mail or fax will be disqualified. Individuals who submit more than one application for the same year will be evaluated on the application submitted first only. An applicant may win a bursary or scholarship more than once, but will not be eligible to win an award two years in a row.
Through the Lorne Fraser Educational Fund, we’ve helped more than 200 British Columbians pursue their educational dreams.
“I cannot begin to thank Lorne Fraser and CMHA BC for selecting me as one of the Lorne Fraser award recipients. I was planning to take a hiatus from studies because I could not afford the tuition for fall and was very saddened by the situation. I cannot begin to find adequate words to elucidate the relief I felt after receiving your email and realizing I can indeed continue with my studies and portfolio … I am so happy you are supporting me on my journey to contribute to society on many levels.” – Bursary Recipient
With your help we can offer even more scholarships and bursaries each year. Please donate.
If you have any questions, please email bakht.anwar@cmha.bc.ca
Download the criteria used to evaluate applications for each bursary and scholarship:
- Lorne Fraser Scholarship for Mental Health Promotion
- Lorne Fraser Educational Bursary
- Mental Health Fine Arts Bursary Award
- Janice Lee Blue Wave Youth Bursary
Learn more:
- A Tribute to Lorne Fraser – Visionary and Difference Maker
- Read inspirational letters from Janice Lee Blue Wave Youth Bursary applicants
