Success Stories

The Path to Self-Care: Using film to explore the gift of diabetes

The Gift of Diabetes is an award winning film that explores the ongoing impacts of colonization and historical trauma on mental, physical, spiritual and emotional health. As the film opens, we learn that Ojibway filmmaker Brion Whitford has not taken any steps to manage the diabetes he has lived with for many years. He now faces serious complications. During a visit to an Elder, Whitford learns about the Medicine Wheel, a tool used by some Aboriginal communities to explain the interconnectedness of four dimensions of health: mental, physical, spiritual and emotional.

Some Serious Carnival Game Ideas

The physical activity program at Haldimand-Norfolk Resource Centre (HNRC) is moving outside the box – and their building. HNRC program manager Susan Roach explains how they were inspired by the television show Minute to Win It to play some new games, and then brought them outdoors to shake out a smile.

Dancing the dark away

This personal story reveals how one woman leads others to dance despite her struggle with anxiety and panic attacks.

Moving from the kitchen to the garden

Eating, cooking, growing: the healthy eating programs of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Grey-Bruce Branch have involved consumers in a number of ways. The “healthy brunch” program offers a hot brunch daily to those in need, as a part of their drop-in program. Donations of food have been received from local grocery stores (food near but still before its expiry date), from farmers at harvest time and from local butchers. Word of mouth and local media coverage have encouraged community donations.
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Stretching One's Reach

I have been teaching Pilates and Yoga at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) since April of 2007. My program is a closed program for inpatients within the Women's Unit at the CAMH College Street Site. We meet once per week, on a weekday evening...
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Finally Fit!

Nadine Reid, a community service worker at Sound Times Support Services in Toronto, offers a personal account of her fitness success and how she was inspired to develop healthy living programs for the consumer/survivor community.
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Running Saved His Life

There's no doubt in Kari Ala-leppilampi's mind: running saved his life. It was about a decade ago that the now 38-year-old was slowly killing himself with an addiction to drugs and alcohol. He was also 45 pounds overweight, and although he did not know it at the time, ...
Continue reading Kari's story...