TERRACE BAY — Support is around the corner – and for free, at that.
The North Shore Family Health Team is offering a series of open gatherings that they’re calling “A Bright New Year,” to residents of Terrace Bay and Schreiber looking to learn more about mental health and coping strategies.
No registration is required to attend any event in the series, which are being held on Mondays during January.
The workshops are hosted by Katie Freeman, RSW, who has worked for the Northshore Family Health Team for three-and-a-half years.
She said that the main idea for these workshops is to introduce people to the basics of mental health and give folks a safe space to listen, participate, and connect at their own pace and without pressure.
To say that this is Freeman’s first rodeo, so to speak, would be incorrect though.
She noticed that people needed more, especially in the midst of the COVID pandemic, and designed these workshops in response to that growing need.
She even sold some of her group counselling workshop programs to other family health teams.
“During COVID, I noticed that the one-to-one counselling was just not enough for people and I really wanted to get people back together. Once we were in the clear, I started running a group at PACE [People Advocating for Change & Empowerment].
"I ran 10 months of mental health workshops there and it was super successful. We had quite a few people come out – and that particular group has actually remained a group on its own. We decided that we would try another one in Terrace Bay,” Freeman said.
“It’s good to just give people space to talk because we can certainly revisit ideas in subsequent groups and I try to bring resources as well. Coffee, tea, anything that makes people feel comfortable.”
She said the choice of location – the Terrace Bay Public Library – also plays a role in group members’ comfortability, since it isn’t linked to a “system” quite like the hospital or community centre.
The first workshop in Terrace Bay, held on Jan. 8, addressed setting realistic personal goals and the role that goals play in managing anxiety and depression.
Tonight’s workshop, from 6 to 8 pm, will explore the definition, characteristics, and possible levels of anxiety in addition to active coping methods.
The final two workshops in Freeman’s January series are set to focus on depression and remembering who we are, grounding ourselves but also giving ourselves permission to find joy in life and return to the things that make us happy.
The plan is to continue offering workshops in Terrace Bay at least until the end of March.
Beyond that, Freeman said she is looking into putting together a creative mental health project that could benefit the Northshore Family Health Team’s catchment area and contribute to the master's degree in social justice that she is currently pursuing.
The Northshore Family Health Team catchment area includes Schreiber, Terrace Bay, Jackfish, and Pays Plat First Nation.
“I think in generality it would be around how we can offer creative mental health solutions that aren’t necessarily one-to-one counselling in a stretched system. In order for people to be well, they need to have places to go and people do really well when they support each other,” Freeman said.
“If you can get people in the same room together and normalize some of the things that they’re going through it goes such a long way to helping people feel better.”
And Freeman’s timing couldn’t be better.
With the AV Terrace Bay mill recently idled, support for those affected has come in many forms – including a Facebook group with resources for workers and families – making this new mental health series a welcome addition to what’s being offered to residents in the community.
Freeman agreed that now is as good a time as ever to deliver workshops like this to the community, but she also reiterated that the need was already there.
“Post-COVID, a lot of things have disappeared, and I think that people need to feel like they’re cared for – that the system cares about them,” she said.
Another positive, as Freeman observed, is the fact that we live in an age where the stigma surrounding mental health and sharing openly with professionals and others facing similar challenges is not only accepted but encouraged.
“There is no pressure to participate. If you’re in a place where you’re struggling, you can just come and listen, sit in the room, and learn. I’m pretty open about my own struggles with mental health as well, so I do a lot of work to normalize that for people. It can even be people who have someone they love who is struggling with mental health. Sometimes, people aren’t ready and that’s okay,” she said.
For those interested in attending, this series of workshops continues tonight and for the next two weeks from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.
