Caring Circle’s Tough Times Toolkit is being offered for the second time because 100 per cent of the spring course participants recommended that other Bowen Islanders have this opportunity. Participants can choose between Thursday evening (6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) classes or Friday midday classes (11a.m. to 1 p.m.), starting November 11 and 12 and running for six weeks. Each class lasts two hours and introduces a new topic and tool.
Maureen Mackey, RN, BSN, M.Ed.(DE) is teaching the course as a volunteer. Her professional background includes psychiatric nursing, adult education, and online teaching.
This course is not therapy or counselling, and is not intended for people in crisis or with acute needs. Rather, this course is designed for everyday folks who want to take a proactive approach to managing their mental health.
“It’s a strength-based course,” describes Mackey. The course begins by addressing self-efficacy and learning about what strengths define individuals. “We build on these particular strengths and then add specific tools each week.”
The course ends by putting the tools together to answer the question: “How are we going to use our strengths and the tools to develop an ongoing resilience building plan?’”
“My hope is that people learn to count on themselves,” said Mackey. “Counselling yourself based on who you are, what your strengths are, and applying these tools in order to experience successes and learning on an everyday basis.”
One previous participant said that through the course they realized “mental health is just like physical health. You need to put some thought and time into it. This doesn’t mean you are nuts, or weak – it’s an important part of living life in a smart, successful way.” [The course had strict confidentiality and the participants gave anonymous feedback at the end.]
Destigmatizing everyday struggles and mental health struggles is important to Mackey. “Destigmatize [so] that people will be more comfortable seeking help, or talking about the struggles that we all have, and which, of course, are all personalized.”
“I’ve had my own serious struggles with mental health and many of my friends on Bowen Island will know of that,” she said. “For me, it was sharing a little bit of what I’ve learned from my own mental health struggles, as well as helping people understand that it is not a weakness to share our everyday concerns – with a focus on building something better.”
The collective nature of the past course – online as it was – was also a high point. “The participants emphasized how much they got out of the friendly, supportive, understanding groups,” said Mackey. “People got so much out of learning from one another and having the support of one another. That exceeded what they expected and certainly exceeded what I expected.” 100 per cent of participants from the spring course felt welcome in the class, found the classes positive, constructive, and meaningful, and found the instructor to be skilled and knowledgeable. Importantly, on our small island, all of the previous participants felt comfortable with the confidentiality of the classes.
More information is available on the Caring Circle website. Interested Bowen Islanders can call or email Colleen O’Neill, Program Director, at 604 947-9100 or email her at [email protected]
