Hugh Mackenzie
Huntsville Doppler
The Sun Doesn’t Always Shine …
Today is the kind of day where a person wants to crawl back into bed and pull the covers over their head. It is dark and gloomy outside for yet another day and we have snow! On May 7th, we have snow in Huntsville!
For most of us, the sun will shine again tomorrow, or the day after and all will be well and happy again. But in my present mood, I am thinking of those for whom the sun seldom shines. Mental illness is something that few people want to talk about and yet it is an issue we have all encountered at one time or another, in ourselves or in people we care about.
There seems to be a stigma to it. If one has serious heart disease or cancer, or a stroke, we have nothing but empathy. We stand by our friends or family. We offer help. We offer encouragement. We tell them they can beat it and we stick with them through thick and thin. With mental illness, I think we often run. We don’t know how to face it and we don’t know how to fix it. So, we run.
It seems to me, that our health system in Canada focuses much more on physical illness than it does on mental illness and yet are they not equally serious? Is postpartum depression or bipolar disorder less important or less debilitating than cancer or a stroke? I would be interested to know the difference in research funds that are dedicated to physical illnesses rather than mental disease. My guess is that it is a wide gulf.
I do know that in the current debate about health care in Muskoka; how many hospitals we should have, where they should be and so on, there has been little discussion about mental health. Yes, mental health folks are at the table, but as another agency, not as a full partner in holistic health care.
In many instances, mental illness manifests itself in poor behaviour. As a society, we don’t like that. When it happens, we tend to put the blame on the individual and not the disease. We think they should suck it up and we believe them to be responsible for their own bad behaviour. We believe they should control their own addictions. It all sounds so sensible but it simply isn’t always that straight forward. It would not surprise me if we had more people with mental illness in our jails than we do in our hospitals. There is something just not right about that.
Over the years, I have encountered a number of people who, in one way or another, have experienced mental illness. As I look back, I feel that in many instances I have let them down; that I did not try hard enough. I am not proud of that.
We need to be better educated about mental illness and we need to be less afraid of it and we need to talk more about it. When we have discussions about the delivery of health care, mental illness should be a significant part of those deliberations. It is not a stigma. It is a disease and it should be treated as such.
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I will be moving to Muskoka from Toronto later this year. As a person with lived experience of severe mental illness, I plan on working with the CMHA to improve supports in the Muskoka area. Together, we can keep advocating and improve care. Glad to know there are other advocates in the area.
Great article Hugh. The lack of understanding and compassion by some MD’s is astoundingly sad in this part of the woods.For example I have had an anxiety /panic disorder since my teenage years and medications have kept me stabilized and productive in my work,family and life. However, once I moved to Huntsville from Toronto both my nurse practitioner and prescribing Doctor randomly and without justifiable reason, decided they would not prescribe my needed medication because they “didn’t like it”. Yes, benzodiazepams are not for everyone, however, for myself, with no history of addiction and no need to ever increase the dosages, I am a perfect candidate for these medications…most importantly they work..they gave me my life back.. I don’t think an MD should have the right to say ” I am no longer prescribing this medication..I don’t like it”..which is what happened to me. Like a diabetic, I need medication to lead a healthy life. My MD would hopefully not take insulin away form a diabetic. There is no difference in these scenarios. Thus, unable to even get on a waiting list for a new MD I have to go to Toronto 3x/year to see an amazingly educated doctor who is the head of mental health for all of the Teaching Hospitals in the GTA. He is as entirely confounded as I am as to why my MD would try to stop this medication cold turkey. I understand that many addicts are in need of help and perhaps MD’s get tired of handing out pills. However, no doctor , or professional, of any sort, should be painting people with the same brush. On a final note, this MD had never met me even once, never listened to my medical struggles, nor did she care to. When I did make the effort to meet with her she yelled at me then told me I wasted her time and made her late for her next patient. I hope no one In Muskoka, or elsewhere, has to endure this so-called “medical care” in health.
Also, mental health disability and addiction are frequently concurrent. When one disorder is treated, the other may not be affected at all; resulting in the chicken-egg scenario repeating itself. Thank you, Hugh, for mentioning the empathy shown toward physical vs. mental disease. And yet, the World Health Organization has projected depression to be the number one disease in the world by 2025.
I certainly concur with Hugh and above comments. Mental Health is often left out of many discussions and interestingly enough, mental struggles are part of physical ailments. Sometimes the physical struggles become mental issues.
Hugh this article is wonderful and i hope the dialogue will continue.
My son with autism had a med reaction and was mis understood and sent to a psych ward. I learned the following:
We need resources for psych wards; they often have only one pay phone, no custom therapy (just group) and basically house people and spit them back out.
We need respect and community supports for people to access services in emergency situations pre and post admission
Ontario has a heck of a time attracting psych doctors and there is a critical shortage north of Hwy 7
After what i have seen, I would suggest watching One Flew over the Cockoos Nest is the retro state 30 years referenced that or Mental health and psych wards are in.
We have awareness but now we need resources, and to actively listen and treat patients and their families in humane medical terms.
Good insight into a big issue.
We need to advocate for funding, education, research, support and management, with lots of patience and perseverance.
I believe that many, if not most, of the people who are incarcerated have either mental health problems or learning disabilities, or fetal alcohol syndrome or emotional instability or head injury, or chronic nutritional deficits of one kind or another.
On the prevention side, it is interesting that some of the first things to be cut or reduced, in schools and community, are music, phys. ed., art, clubs and after-school programs; we need to attend to the basics and keep kids busy and interested in their world.
Thanks, Hugh.
A very perceptive and understanding column. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for your thoughts Hugh. As an Occupational Therapist on an Assertive Community Treatment Team I work with individuals with severe and persistent mental health challenges everyday. I have found that these individuals are often the most resourceful and resilient people.
Recently I came across the term “sanism.” It means the oppression of people who have a mental health diagnosis or are what society deems mentally unwell by those who are ‘normal.’ Sanism is shown when we assume that someone talking to themselves is dangerous, or when we use terms like ‘mad’ or ‘crazy.’ Another example is when we label people with a diagnosis and assume that only the traditional medical model can ‘fix’ them; when we assume that the individual even wants to be ‘fixed.’
How do we prevent sanism? It starts by recognizing it within ourselves. Re-evaluate the language you use, recognize your assumptions. When you purchase someone on the street a coffee are you doing it for them or for you? there is a real difference between sympathy and empathy. We need to have kindness, and patience (ex. Wait and allow a safe space before prescriptions and police).
Thank you for creating a space to have this conversation. We can be better.