I am grateful to have recently been sponsored by PCMH to attend the Summit on Children & Youth Mental Health last week in Toronto.  I always look forward to these events because of the camaraderie shared amongst all walks of life and their dedication to children’s mental health, this was no exception.

With 500 people in attendance the room was electric.  The keynote speakers were informative, inspiring and energized and although I have been hearing the buzz that we are at the “tipping point” of creating a system that reflects the needs of our children, I now truly believe that we sit on this cusp.

I was particularly impressed by the courage and passion displayed by the Youth-Family Panel portion and the disclosure of their personal journey.  The panel discussed mental illness from the family perspective and I immediately felt a connection and relatability to their stories.  They bravely spoke of the depth and degree of their families’ battle with depression, the stigma that continues to surround them and the difficulties endured while seeking treatment.  They also told of not being heard, understood or legitimated, but what really resonated with me was the heartfelt impression they left on the importance of family.  Not only of the unconditional love, but the dedication and relentless support of one another and how it has been (in many instances) a life line.  These families seemed to have stopped at nothing and no one to make sure they received what they needed not only in times of crisis, but in the long term management of their illness as well.

It was at this time when I looked around the room, made up predominantly of educators, front-line workers, executives, healthcare personnel, trustees, lawyers, agency directors, representatives of the Ministry of Health & Education, as well as other “like” professionals who were emphatically applauding this “family panel” that I felt and understood the importance of the parent/caregiver role and the significance and impact of the family perspective.  Not only to promote our individual familial healing, but on the process of building a national healthcare system designed to help all Canadians to effectively cope and manage with children’s mental health issues as a whole.

There was a vast professional representation at the table to which I was seated including a journalist, special needs teacher, a child & youth advocacy lawyer, persons from the Ministry of Education, the CAS and myself…a parent.

Typically, being present in this company, I would have felt extremely intimidated, but the strategic seating arrangement along with the Vision and Action workshop we were participating in completely aligned our table and allowed us to understand not only the perspective of all of our viewpoints and agendas, but it gave us the ability to empathize with the multitude of challenges we all face in our personal and professional capacities.

Our task was to identify (with our newly formed partnership) what a child and youth mental health system would look like if “they” got everything right and what would be the first steps in the action plan to get there.

There were many different ideas offered by the professional diversity of our table, but even my input with its’ self-proclaimed mentality of  being “just a parent” was validated, valued and received with the same integrity and credibility (if not more) than the “professionals” seated with me.  The commonality that we could all agree on is that we need to get back to the fundamentals and develop a “universal dialogue” that spans time zones, cultures, generations and genders in order to alleviate the misconceptions that surround child and youth mental health therefore dispelling the stigma that prevents our country from participating in its own mentally healthy progression.

What would the terminology and language be that would allow everyone to absorb the level of deficit our families and this country experience with respect to our attitudes of mental illness on our social, educational and health care systems?  What words could better articulate crisis, devastation, death?

What we did conclude was that we need to keep this conversation going.  We need to take it with us to our kitchen tables, boardroom tables and parliamentary tables so that this conversation doesn’t end with another heartbroken parent at the coroner’s table.

I greatly appreciate being given the opportunity to be part of this experience.  It has empowered me as a parent, inspired me as a human being and propelled me to do more and be more for the mental well being of all children and youth.

Just a Parent.