With the annual Bell Let’s Talk Day coming up Wednesday, the conversation around mental health awareness and wellness is getting a strong focus.
Myrna Hutchison, the founder of the Get In Touch For Hutch organization, said the progress has been great over the last year, but there are more steps that must be taken going forward.
“There’s so many people that are unaware of even where to start to begin to get support where they need to. So I think we need to keep sharing our tools and resources. There’s lots of groups and different services out there that hopefully we can connect them to and I think we just have to keep talking, that has to be the basis of everything we do," said Hutchison.
The Listowel Cyclones recently held a Get In Touch For Hutch night at a game. Myrna said it was actually driven by the team, and that’s a positive sign that mental health is becoming more important in many walks of life, including athletes.
“The team is so respected, the fan base is deep and quite large, and the executive are certainly a committed bunch of individuals to make a difference for not only the players but the whole community, as well," said Hutchison.
Myrna said it’s important to keep the awareness up surrounding mental health, but more steps need to be taken to ensure people are aware of resources available to them, as well as making sure more resources become available that people can easily access.
She also said among many initiatives they are a part of, the Buddy Bench program has been a big success.
“The Buddy Bench program is a continuing effort that we are involved in and continuing to roll it out. We are now in over 40 schools that we’ve been able to touch with our message around the Buddy Bench program," said Hutchison. "What we really want to focus on this year is community connectedness.”
The idea behind the Buddy Bench is that anyone feeling alone can sit on the bench at school, and others are to take note and go talk to or include that person. Hutchison said the focus on community is important because too often people can get consumed by technology, instead of staying in touch with meaningful people or relationships.
