Ideas from Past Years - Successful Events
- A mental health promotion committee in Manitoba (composed of mental health professionals, as well as consumer and community groups) held a weeklong program of events in 12 community sites. Each site had displays, resource material, speakers, presentations and depression screenings. Sites were located at local schools and seniors" and native friendship centres. The week was advertised through paid and pro bono advertising, kicked off by a speaker and topped off with a gala.
- A group of art students at the New Brunswick Craft College designed black masks with the names of various mental illnesses written on the foreheads. The masks were used throughout the week at various events and locations in the Fredericton area. The masks were intended to show how hard it is to disclose mental illness. A large mask was placed at City Hall to mark World Mental Health Day.
- Mental health consumers and supporters created works of art on the general theme of mental health on panels that were provided by MIAW organizers. The works reflected personal experiences with mental illness and how the artists felt about mental health. Different media including painting, drawing, textiles, photography, ceramics, collage and needlepoint were used. The panels were assembled into a giant mosaic and unveiled during MIAW at Alderney Landing Visual Art Centre in Dartmouth.
- A coalition of groups in Trois-Riviúres put messages about mental illness in 8,000 fortune cookies, which they distributed at MIAW events.
- Ten people with mental illnesses worked with two professional actors to develop humorous skits about mental illness. The skits were performed at a high school in Kings County, Nova Scotia.
- About 90 agencies in Toronto participated in a Mental Health Information Fair. The agencies represented a range of services: crisis, hospital, housing, women, addictions, community support, consumer initiatives, cultural-specific, self-help groups, as well as seniors, children and adolescents.
- A group set up an information booth in one of the largest malls in Winnipeg.
- Three downtown coffee houses in Victoria, B.C., displayed art by patients with mental illnesses.
- An open house was held in British Columbia to mark the opening of a new mental health lending library for the public.
