In preparation for Bell Let카지노 게임 컬렉션™s Talk Day, former rector and long-time mental health advocate Mike Young, Artsci카지노 게임 컬렉션™16, sat down to talk about stigma, social justice, and the future with Dr. Heather Stuart, a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the holder of the Bell Mental Health and Anti-Stigma Chair.
Q: You have been at the forefront of the mental health and anti-stigma research that we카지노 게임 컬렉션™ve had at Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션™s, so I카지노 게임 컬렉션™m interested in hearing what your observations have been about where we are now compared to where we were when you started here.
A: When I first started in this area, nobody was talking about stigma. Nobody thought mental health research was worthwhile, and nobody was paying attention. People wondered why I was here. Why is this important? It was a really low priority.
Since that time, it카지노 게임 컬렉션™s almost unimaginable to think that we have companies like Bell Canada, Morneau Chappelle, IBM, all turning their attention to mental health, and recognizing that stigma is a big problem.
We카지노 게임 컬렉션™ve gone from being completely under a rock to the forefront of people카지노 게임 컬렉션™s consciousness in a very short period of time. It has been a watershed for those of us who work in mental health 카지노 게임 컬렉션“ those few of us who work in the stigma world 카지노 게임 컬렉션“ because we카지노 게임 컬렉션™ve gone from having no or low status to an insatiable demand for what we카지노 게임 컬렉션™re doing.
There hasn카지노 게임 컬렉션™t been much of this research in the past because there was never any money for it. Now we have students who see prospects for their future in this 카지노 게임 컬렉션“ we카지노 게임 컬렉션™re finally able to see some human capital and some interest. It카지노 게임 컬렉션™s been a complete about-face.
Q: Moving to the content of your message, the things we've tried to help young people understand about mental health 카지노 게임 컬렉션“ about treating each other kindly and treating yourself kindly. What do you think the progress has been?
A: It카지노 게임 컬렉션™s been happening slowly, but there is a bit of a sea-change occurring. And I카지노 게임 컬렉션™d like to think we had something to do with it. We카지노 게임 컬렉션™re trying to get to the public health community and help them understand that some of the models that they카지노 게임 컬렉션™re using are outdated and don카지노 게임 컬렉션™t work.
We카지노 게임 컬렉션™ve learned that if you want people to change their behaviours, they have to be front and centre in the process. There has to be some sort of participatory process that is aimed at empowering them. You don카지노 게임 컬렉션™t have to give them a solution. You just have to empower them to want a solution and they카지노 게임 컬렉션™ll figure it out themselves.
It카지노 게임 컬렉션™s a lot of work, though, to get people engaged and involved, but it카지노 게임 컬렉션™s worth it. You can create sustainable change when you get people on the front lines invested in the problem and thinking critically about ways of solving it
Q: Do you see that other institutions are looking at Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션™s for leadership or for some kind of blueprint? What do you see as Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션™s position?
A: I think Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션™s is in a very good position. We have a principal who, right from the start was on a mental health platform. Even before other universities were in on it, he was right there, with his sleeves rolled up. We카지노 게임 컬렉션™ve had good leadership throughout our student wellness initiatives, more than other universities. I think because Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션™s is small, we카지노 게임 컬렉션™ve had an opportunity to work together, as opposed to places where one hand doesn카지노 게임 컬렉션™t know what the other is doing.
When we did the Caring Campus work, we talked to people and let them know what we were doing. We didn카지노 게임 컬렉션™t want to set up a dynamic where we were butting up against people, trying to get them involved.
We got to a point with Caring Campus where the young men were saying that it had a lot to do with their image of themselves, and the masculinity issue. They saw the need to challenge that and challenge what it means to be masculine and not drink because of that pressure, to have the freedom to be healthy and to drink safely.
Q: It makes me think of other things going on in the world right now 카지노 게임 컬렉션“ the Me Too movement and how that카지노 게임 컬렉션™s very stigma-focused, and various issues in gender diversity and toxic masculinity and feminism. Do you see parallels with what you카지노 게임 컬렉션™re doing? When we talk about sexual violence, we want people not to have to be re-traumatized. How do you see the way your work fits in with the broad spectrum of social justice?
A: It카지노 게임 컬렉션™s very much about social justice. The whole issue of stigma is a social justice issue. People카지노 게임 컬렉션™s social and civic rights are being denied just because they belong to an illness group.
Mental health is at the centre of everything. If we want to make people happier and healthier, it카지노 게임 컬렉션™s a mental health issue. We have to accept that people can have mental illnesses and live happy, healthy, productive lives. We have to get our heads around that and then we have to think about how we can promote that.
Right now we don카지노 게임 컬렉션™t do a very good job in our health systems and our school systems, but if we could get ourselves thinking that this is not only possible, but probable, how could we make it happen? What should we be talking to Grade 1 students about? And Grade 2 students? If you could imagine a trajectory of training or socialization from kindergarten to Grade 12, what kind of message should those kids be getting every single year? If we did that, we wouldn카지노 게임 컬렉션™t have problems by the time kids get to university. They would be so centered and self-assured. We have to do that in conjunction with schools, and many of them don카지노 게임 컬렉션™t want to talk about this stuff. It카지노 게임 컬렉션™s scary. Teachers don카지노 게임 컬렉션™t feel prepared.
We카지노 게임 컬렉션™ve been working with Bell on materials to help teachers feel more comfortable and confident in their ability to talk to students. Even professors in university don카지노 게임 컬렉션™t feel prepared to talk to students. They카지노 게임 컬렉션™ll shuffle them off to disability services, but they don카지노 게임 컬렉션™t know how to make the basic accommodations for them. We카지노 게임 컬렉션™ve got to get our head around how to do that
Q: Looking ahead to your future, what is your next focus going to be? What is the next big thing for you?
A: There are two things. One is we카지노 게임 컬렉션™re working more closely with Bell around evidence-informed decisions that they카지노 게임 컬렉션™re making in their Let카지노 게임 컬렉션™s Talk programming. They카지노 게임 컬렉션™re wanting to support evidence-based programming and they want to know the evidence that these strategies work. So we카지노 게임 컬렉션™re helping them understand. For the first five years, they were content to let us do what our research and they would trot me out when they need me. But now we카지노 게임 컬렉션™re working much more collaboratively and that카지노 게임 컬렉션™s great.
The second big thing is we are working with IBM and the Centre for Advanced Computing here at Queen카지노 게임 컬렉션™s to create a Watson smartphone application that will talk to people in their vernacular language around mental health and mental illness and give them advice about what to do, where to go, what websites to use. It will understand when somebody is quite ill and will triage them to a human being.
It카지노 게임 컬렉션™s called Here for You. You can talk to Here for You anonymously. No one will ever know. You카지노 게임 컬렉션™ll get advice that카지노 게임 컬렉션™s vetted by professionals, so if you want to access resources you will know that a group of people with clinical expertise have decided that it카지노 게임 컬렉션™s a good resource. You카지노 게임 컬렉션™re not taking any risks. And you can promote your own health 24/7, at whatever time is convenient for you.
We are targeting it toward military families to start with because they move around and they go to these remote communities where there are no mental health professionals. There카지노 게임 컬렉션™s no continuity of care. Every two years they카지노 게임 컬렉션™re moving. So if we can get Here for You to be sophisticated enough to take the place of a low-level counsellor, we카지노 게임 컬렉션™re not going to be treating people who are ill, but we will be able to help people who have day-to-day stresses, whose kids may be acting out, who are having trouble adapting to a new environment. I think we카지노 게임 컬렉션™re going to fill a huge gap and help those families live a better life. And once we get that worked out, there카지노 게임 컬렉션™s no reason why we couldn카지노 게임 컬렉션™t talk to other people as well.
We카지노 게임 컬렉션™re going into the technology realm to see how technology can solve the access problem and the maldistribution of resources 카지노 게임 컬렉션“ which is an issue of stigma. It카지노 게임 컬렉션™s structural stigma. Those two things will be the next ten years of my life.
