Since 2006, the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia has invested more than $850,000 in Capital District Mental Health Program projects and initiatives – thanks to the generosity of our donors. The Foundation is pleased to announce a total of 30 projects for fiscal 2012/13 with a total funding value of over $91,000.
Living with Mental Illness: A Guidebook for Families and Friends
With families and friends of those living with mental illness becoming increasing involved in the care of their loved one, there comes a need for more information. A guidebook for family and friends was developed in 2007, with support from the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia, which addresses this need on a broad basis. This guidebook is used regularly and has proven to be a great resource. This funding will allow the guidebook to be updated and edited to reflect the current efforts of the Mental Health Program to improve consumer, family and provider collaboration. Funding is requested to produce 3,000 copies of the guidebook for distribution across the program.
Atlantic Minds Wide Open 2012
Atlantic Minds Wide Open 2012 will be the second annual one-day film festival promoting the use of film to explore themes of mental health, wellness and communities that are vibrant and inclusive. The inaugural event occurred in November of 2011 enabled by an essential grant of $4,216.50 from the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia. Through the use of film, primarily sourced from regional filmmakers with personal connections and interests in the areas of mental health, well-being and community evolution, a wide spectrum of individuals can participate in conversations and activities culminating in the event. The focus of the event and its planning injects vitality, creativity and power into the processes of personal recover and shifting social perceptions about mental health issues.
Clothes City
Clothes City has been providing clothes and shoes, free of charge, to mental health consumers in need for many years. The team of 6 volunteers who run Clothes City includes mental health consumers and non-consumers alike and is an excellent example of a fully integrated project where no segregation exists between the responsibilities and participation of mental health consumers and non-consumers. The proposed funds would allow volunteers to purchase quality used items and reasonably priced new items along with cleaning supplies to prepare items for use by Clothes City clients.
Get Up and Go! Leisure Education/ Community Integration Program
Get Up and Go focuses on the recovery of participants from the Mayflower Unit by providing the first steps to community integration. This treatment program creates a supportive environment for participants to share their experiences with one another and learn skills that help make their transition back into the community more successful by increasing their ability to reestablish and maintain a balanced lifestyle. Through a series of leisure education sessions and community leisure experiences, participants gain self-confidence and independence.
A Collective Kitchen – Learning Together
Recovery and Integration Services through New Beginnings Dartmouth aim to enhance people’s independence in the area of food preparation, create a social network among participants, and maximize the value of people’s food budget through producing meals in larger quantities through the development of a collective kitchen. A collective kitchen is a group of people who pool their resources to make quantities of food which are divided amongst the group to take home. Held once a week in the community room at Sobey’s on Tacoma Drive, the goal of the program is to help people who receive services from Recovery and Integration and those involved with the 250 Homes Project, learn how to plan, shop and prepare a healthy meal. Funding will be used to purchase items for a starter kit for the collective kitchen.
Harvest Time
For the last eight years there have been vegetable and herb garden beds at East Coast Forensics Hospital. Dedicated clients and staff tend to the gardens each spring, summer and fall through group and individual therapy sessions providing a hands-on, outdoor experience that provides practical experience that can be transferred to any setting. The East Coast Forensics team will use the funding provided to pay for new bed frames, soil and gardening accessories to continue and improve the gardening program.
Enhancements for Program Delivery for Mental Health & Addictions Clients
Shelter Nova Scotia estimates that approximately 80 percent of the homeless men living at Metro Turning Point, Halifax’s largest homeless shelter, experience complex mental health and/or addiction issues. However, making phone calls, filling out forms and arriving on time to appointments at distant community locations can be daunting if you’re living in a shelter or on the street. That why Addiction Prevention and Treatment Services has been working with the Mental Health Program and Metro Turning Point to remove barriers to access for individuals who are homeless and also experiencing mental illness and addictions. Grant funding will be used to enhance the pilot project, allowing the purchase and provision of nutritious food and snacks for the individuals who are accessing onsite programs, such as one-on-one counseling, participation in recovery and education groups and therapeutic recreational activities.
Creative Expressions & Art Program
This program provides Mayflower Unit patients with the opportunity to explore individual creativity in a supportive group therapy approach to treatment. Clients have the opportunity to express their feelings and experiences in a creative method, while interacting with their peers. Additionally, clients will get to participate in a community art activity once a month. The use of art and creative outlets as a modality for behaviour change, relaxation, and coping has been widely applied in a variety of treatment settings for many years, and has been proven to reduce negative symptoms.
The Spot Artist and Musician Retreat
The Spot is an artistic space for anyone under 30, developed in partnership through Connections Halifax, the Nova Scotia Sea School, and HRM Recreation. At the Spot there is opportunity for participants to play and record music, write, draw, paint, sculpt, take photos and videos and explore new ways of self expression through creativity. Grant funding will provide access for 30 individuals to participate in an out-of-town creative arts retreat in Ship Harbour Nova Scotia that they would otherwise not be able to experience. Youth will be engaged in a variety of facilitated creative group activities and be encouraged to draw artistic inspiration from a new environment.
Art Group
Art Group provides an opportunity for patients at Abbie J. Lane to express their creativity through weekly art group. This grant will support the program open to all those involved in the Mental Health Program providing patients with an opportunity to create art which can help improve mental and emotional health as well as improve self-awareness, cognitive abilities and reduce stress, all key elements in the healing process. Grant funding will allow art group to be expanded to provide funding for a total of fifteen participants per week to benefit from the opportunity to participate.
Exploring Emotions Workbook
A new initiative this year, this is a community education project focusing on mental health. The project involves the creation of a workbook to assist patients in developing emotional processing skills. As many patients enrolled in the Day Treatment Program begin therapy with deficits in emotional processing, developing skills in this area has become a primary goal to successful therapeutic intervention. The ‘Exploring Emotions Workbook’ will help patients learn how their emotional processing style may help or hurt their functioning, and help family members better understand their loved ones.
Living Leisure…Loving Life!
Acute Care/Short Stay at the Abbie J. Lane has developed a new community integration program that focuses on providing clients with regular access to leisure activities in the community. Many of these activities will be able to be enjoyed after discharge from the hospital and will contribute to improved health and wellness when living in the community. A variety of leisure activities will be explored and clients will work in small groups to plan the activities they are interested in. Support will be given to expand the choices available and learn how to participate in community leisure activities.
Exploring Our Community
This project gives the clients of Recovery & Integration Services the opportunity to access the community on a regular basis during their stay as an inpatient. Clients and staff would work together to identify possible outings of interest and plan how to get there. The opportunity to learn, improve on and maintain the skills required to participate in community activities will help develop a productive daily routine that can be continued after leaving the hospital. Getting out of the hospital setting on a regular basis will give clients the chance to develop and improve their social skills and decrease their feelings of isolation.
Wilderness Wellness
The Wilderness Wellness program is designed to support the rehabilitation of individuals experiencing mental health problems in a natural, nonthreatening, and supportive environment. The program will last the duration of two consecutive nights and will be implemented on two separate occasions over the course of six months. The primary goal of the program is to provide therapeutic programming in a non-clinical environment that will develop the skills of the participants to achieve optimal success in the community. The secondary and long-term outcome of the program is to reduce recidivism rates at the Abbie J. Lane Memorial Hospital.
The Wellness Garden
A continuation of a project begun in 2009, the Wellness Garden is a collaborative project of the staff of the Short Stay Unit and the 6th and 7th floors of Abbie J. Lane. Funding will be used for group activities, weekly barbeques and improvements to the patio garden boxes. Gardening activities will help build participants’ confidence and provide a renewed sense of purpose and accomplishment.
Friends Gathering Psychosocial Rehab Group
With the principals of psychosocial rehabilitation at heart, the Bedford-Sackville Community Mental Health Services aims to provide activities such as crafts, games, special events and community outings for it members. This grant will allow the group to rent buses and other transportation that will allow them to continue their activities throughout the community. By participating in the group, members develop personal goals and gain confidence they need to be successful in their recovery.
Friends Among Friends
Affiliated with Cole Harbour- Eastern HRM Community Mental Health, Friends Among Friends is a community-based group for mental health consumers to meet weekly for a social gathering. The group participates in community events, cooking and games and welcomes a guest speaker each month to speak about a topic relevant to the group members. By increasing members’ involvement in their community, members develop a sense of empowerment and confidence in making decisions. It has been the experience of the group over the past year that with the increase in activities outside the clients' immediate community, there has been an increase in clients' confidence in making decisions regarding future community activities and personal (vocational) goals.
Inpatient Wellness Group
This grant will support the 6th and 7th Floors of the Inpatient Unit at the Abbie J. Lane “Wellness Group”. Run by occupational therapy, the group serves to identify, teach and practice coping skills as well as explore various ways that individuals can become more fully engaged in their communities through community based activities. Sessions vary based on the needs of current clients.
We Can
A joint venture of Maritime and Coral Hall, the “We Can” program provides inpatient consumers with a unique experience that would enable them to engage in normalized community activity in a supportive environment. This program will assist clients to engage in independent living skills and recreational activities during a period of their illness when they may find it difficult to perform these skills independently. Taking place outside of the hospital selling, the program encourages clients to take greater control over their daily decisions which is an important transition skill back to community living. This experience is designed to promote greater self confidence and foster independence.
Windows to Recovery
As new initiative, Windows to Recovery will be a therapeutic digital photography group for clients of the Nova Scotia Early Psychosis Program (NSEPP) that will allow clients to explore, document and share their experiences in their recovery, the successes, the struggles and the hope, using photography and their own words as the medium to do so. Up to twenty participants will create a small photo documentary that will be displayed in a gallery at the NSEPP clinic in hopes to inspire reflection among the many clients, their families and others about recovery.
Coffee Hour and Social Skills Group
Of benefit to many clients of Emerald Hall and numerous consumers who reside in the community, Coffee Hour is a safe, home-like environment in which they can enjoy complementary coffee/tea and snacks while socializing with peers. Clients are also provided with opportunities to enhance their social and work skills, and receive support from staff as appropriate.
Eating Healthy Program
Mental Health Acute Care Program at Abbie J. Laine aims to provide clients with opportunities for social interaction and the development and/or maintenance of social skills while eating healthy. The Eating Healthy program is designed to support skill building in meal planning, preparation and enjoyment. Many social leisure activities are centered around food and eating and making healthy food choices is an important element of enjoying life.
Meal Group
The Occupational Therapy Team of Emerald Hall facilitates three meal groups on a weekly basis. Snacks are also prepared and distributed as part of various rehabilitation programs. Meal groups are hosted in the furnished Activities of Daily Living Suite and grant funding will be used to purchase food preparation equipment that aids in teaching life skills that clients can learn and transfer to the community setting.
Rural Transportation
The geographic area of Hants West is large, with public transportation available in the central Windsor area and some extension to communities in close proximity only; much of the population served by the West Hants Community Mental Health team remains outside the geographic boundaries of the transit system. This grant will provide for transportation for clinic individuals who would be unable to access services without the added assistance. Bus tickets, taxi chits and support from the West Hants Alternative Transportation Society (Dial-A-Ride) will allow patient and/or patients and their family transportation to and from tertiary care within Capital Health to appointments and programs.
Vegetables in Pots
As a continuation of the “Ready, Set, Grow” initiative of in 2006, the Mental Health Day Treatment Program would like to establish container vegetable gardening as a way for participants to learn skills that they can use in their home environment. This initiative operates under the premise that you don’t need a plot of land to grow fresh vegetables; many lend themselves to container gardening. Working with plants has been proven beneficial for many groups and growing vegetables in pots has the additional benefit of supplementing clients’ food budgets.
Healthy Food Snacks
Mental Health clients, in general, have several determinants of health to deal with – income, healthy development, environment, personal health practices. The Acute Care/Short Stay units want to empower clients to try healthier snacks while in the hospital, hoping that this will have an impact on their health after discharge. With capital grant funding healthier snacks will be made available on the units, and patients will learn what is a good choice and how to make healthier choices for themselves.
Creating Incentives and Overcoming Barriers to Treatment
The Borderline Personality Disorder Treatment Program is a new program created in collaboration with Addictions Prevention & Treatment Services with no new funding. Its purpose is to provide intensive long term treatment for individuals diagnosed with severe Borderline Personality Disorder. Individuals participating in the program will have a high degree of challenge and impairment with limited financial resources. Funding will make access to this new service as easy as possible, providing transportation, childcare and removing other barriers that will allow participants to focus their attention and energy on treatment and recovery.
Special Events on Emerald Hall
Emerald Hall staff host a series of holiday events throughout the year, which provide opportunities for clients to make crafts, assist with food preparation and table setting and develop their social skills. These events help to normalize the lives of clients and increase their quality of life. Increased funding this year will allow for those extra special touches that make special occasions special.
Art Therapy on Emerald Hall
This is the first request for funding to deliver art therapy to the patients on Emerald Hall. The art group will encourage art as a form of communication. Patients draw out their emotions as they are provided with an opportunity to express themselves through art (drawing, collage, self portraits, clay and sketch books). Sharing them with the group serves as an opportunity to increase practice and improve communication skills.
Girls Group
Girls Group provides female clients of Emerald Hall with a private forum to discuss women’s health issues and develop self-esteem. Female clients get the opportunity to meet weekly, where they learn new skills and receive educational information about health issues specific to women.