Michele Gyselinck

  Good article.  I especially appreciated the fact that mental illness was mentioned as an important factor in suicide attempts, particularly when it is under-treated or untreated altogether.  Having had suicidal thoughts myself when my illness was not diagnosed, let alone treated, I think it is very important that this issue be addressed by the church with compassion BOTH for those who are contemplating it and those who live with survivor guilt, "Why didn't I see the signs?"  Neither would benefit from a condemning attitude.

These statistics would likely be the same in Canada.  I know that I live on a disability income well below the poverty level.  I am now well enough to start looking for work but I'm almost 56, so I wonder who will hire me.

 Besides, even if someone without arms can't pack grocery bags, it doesn't mean they CAN'T do ANYTHING else.  Having no arms doesn't mean that people cannot think.   In Québec we have a singer who was born with stubby arms and only three fingers on each hand as well as virtually no legs as a result of his mother having taken Thalidomide during her pregnancy, but the guy still finds a way to strum his guitar and begot perfectly normal kids, though I don't know why I insist on this.  The biggest employment hurdle to overcome for people with disabilities is the narrow-mindedness and lack of imagination of able-bodied people.  Here too we see too many chronically normal people placing roadblocks in front of people with disabilities trying to find gainful employment.

As a Regional Advocate who has written extensively about mental illness on this network I was rather discouraged to see that after all these years we still have to tell people that mental illness is actually a thing.  Haven’t people learned anything yet?  Mental illness is a reality regardless of how old people are.  Schizophrenia was not mentioned in the list of illnesses kids can experience, but many teenagers can be afflicted with it as well as bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder.  When I was reading this post I felt as though some people haven’t been paying attention because in 2024 we shouldn’t still be at the stage of needing to tell grownups that the young people under their care can suffer from mental illnesses, and they should take it seriously.  Good grief!

Congratulations on your award.  I am one of the people who have not learned your speech patterns yet, and I never seem to get the chance to do so.  I guess I would need more exposure, but so far it hasn't happened. 

Congratulations on your award.  I am one of the people who have not learned your speech patterns yet, and I never seem to get the chance to do so.  I guess I would need more exposure, but so far it hasn't happened. 

 Last year while I was attending the Conference in Windsor, I bought the book Prophetic Lament by Soong-Chan Rah, and the Scripture text that speaks to me the most is Lamentations 3:19-33.  Feel free to read the whole thing, but I had to stop somewhere.  I DID NOT choose this text. It grabbed me and never let go.

How sad!  Why do those agencies always assume that bad behaviour is caused by abuse in the home?  You'd think they would at least do their homework and check things out before removing a child.  In Québec the Direction de Protection de la Jeunesse (Children's Aid), was put into trusteeship because it failed to intervene in a child abuse case.  I know that seems to contradict the above, but kids can be abused in foster care as well as in the home environment, and there is no guarantee that removing them from their familiar environment will protect them from abuse.  Nor that their home is necessarily more abusive than foster care would be.

 My mom took care of that by getting my cousin who's a notary to write it down.  She's 93, so she doesn't want to be resuscitated if her heart were to give out, and we know about it.  At her age that's normal.  I have a hand-written will because getting a notarized will is more expensive than I can afford on social assistance.  Being poor affects all aspects of life, even what happens after you die.

 At First Montreal CRC, we have been holding Tenebrae services on Good Friday for AGES.  I don't even remember what Good Friday services were like BEFORE that.

 As someone who has sat on the board of directors of a local day center for people with mental illnesses for several years, even though I am not a professional in the field I was able to provide that information to the Church Council.  It's a very good article although the information in it seems geared almost exclusively to Americans.  Then again, in Canada  mental health resources vary from province to province, so what goes for Ontario doesn't apply to Quebec or Manitoba.  It is up to churches to figure out what is relevant in their province, but they could probably find it by Googling it.  Or call their local hospital.