Parks and Recreation Month
How can parks and recreation support our mental health and wellbeing? June is recognized as Parks and Recreation month! For WRSPC Program Coordinator Karyn, visiting and enjoying parks continues to play an important role in maintaining her wellbeing. In today’s blog post, she explores four ways that parks and recreation can positively impact mental health […]
June Resource Round Up
Men’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Resources June is recognized as Canadian Men’s Health Month. For this month’s Resource Round-Up, we’re highlighting organizations and resources that are focused on men’s mental health and suicide prevention. To learn more about how suicide impacts men, visit: Mental Health and Suicide Prevention in Men – Evidence Brief – […]
May Resource Round-Up
Suicide Prevention Apps Online and digital mental health resources, such as websites, apps, and artificial intelligence tools, are becoming more popular. To help support the development of safe, quality, and effective mental health apps in Canada, the Mental Health Commission of Canada created a Mental Health App Assessment framework with support from Health Canada and […]
April Resource Round-Up
April is National Counselling and Psychotherapy month! We know that there can be a lot of questions about counselling and psychotherapy. This month, we’ve collected some resources to help you understand and access counselling or psychotherapy services. Ontario Counselling Finder Develop and led by Family Service Ontario, the Ontario Counselling Finder is an online tool […]
Understanding Self-Injury and Suicide
You may have heard of the terms self-harm, self-injury, or non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). But what do these terms mean, and how are they related to suicide? According to Self-Injury Outreach and Support (SiOS), a collaboration between two Ontario universities, “non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), also referred to as self-injury or self-harm, is the deliberate and direct […]
Resource Round-Up: Bullying & Suicide Prevention
Pink Shirt Day is observed annually on the last Wednesday of February, and this year, it falls on February 26. It’s a day dedicated to standing up against bullying and promoting kindness, empathy, and respect. It started back in 2007, when two grade 12 students in Nova Scotia bought and distributed 50 pink shirts after […]
Resource Roundup: Conversation Guides
Throughout January, there are a few different awareness days that focus on mental health and wellbeing, including Bell Let’s Talk Day. To help support caring conversations about mental health and suicide prevention in our community, we’ve compiled some of our favourite conversation guides. BeThere.Org Be There – Mental health support BeThere.Org is a free resource […]
Suicide Prevention and Life Transitions: Older Adulthood
Older adults are typically understood to be those aged 65 and older. These adults are a growing proportion of the world’s population. In fact, Region of Waterloo estimates that by 20235, 1/5 residents will be considered to be older adults. (Region of Waterloo, 2022). It’s long been recognized that as a population group, older […]
Suicide Prevention and Life Transitions: Middle Adulthood
Middle adulthood can often bring its own unique challenges, many associated with specific transitions experienced during this life stage. Although there is no agreed upon definition of middle age and middle-adulthood, it can refer to a range of ages from 30 to 65. Some significant life transitions that may be experienced by mid-age adults […]
Suicide Prevention and Life Transitions: Young Adulthood
The transition to young adulthood is filled with new experiences and decisions to be made, including whether to attend post-secondary school, such as college or university. Beginning college or university can come with many significant changes which may impact a person’s mental health and wellbeing. Changes such as moving to a new city and/or […]