Mental health needs are receiving more attention in recent years, but there still remain huge gaps in understanding and acceptance of mental health issues. Community members often suffer in silence due to stigma that prevents people from asking for help or discussing addictions, suicide and life trauma openly with their friends, colleagues or family members.
Distinguishing poor mental health from mental illness can sometimes be difficult, but important because treatment approaches differ greatly. True mental illness is relatively rare and requires specialized psychiatric treatment, and sometimes hospitalization. Poor mental health, on the other hand, is common and stems from life events such as loss of a job or relationship, stresses from food or housing insecurity or from loneliness and social isolation.
Worrying and feeling sad or uncomfortable are a normal part of the human condition and can be expected responses to life events. Grassroots and community-led offerings like the events of Banff’s Mental Health and Addiction Week are key in building resilience and promoting ways to increase and maintain good mental health. Sharing circles and communal activities such as singing, dancing or cooking with others are key to building social connections and supports.
But some of what we label as mental illness is a response to very difficult or unfair life circumstances. In the Bow Valley, many residents suffer from food and housing security. With many employed in low-wage, seasonal jobs with little job security, few benefits and accommodations controlled by their employers, residents suffer from significant stresses that lead to anxiety, depression, substance misuse or even suicide. Many are new arrivals to the community and don’t have natural support networks of family and friends in close proximity.
Temporary foreign workers face added stresses related to immigration rules and closed work permits that take away their freedom to choose their employer or job. Some Bow Valley residents also face oppression or discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or Indigenous status.
We are fortunate to have ready access to publicly insured mental health services in the Bow Valley. Such services are not always found in communities of our size. From 24-hour access to a physician in the emergency department to walk-in access to mental health counsellors daily from 2 to 9 p.m., Bow Valley residents can have their urgent mental health needs met at the Canmore or Banff hospitals. For those in crisis, help is also available through the nationwide 9-8-8 Suicide Crisis Helpline. For less urgent mental health needs, residents can access mental health counselling through family physicians’ offices within days and through the Bow Valley Primary Care Network or Access Mental Health within a few weeks.
But we must be careful not to characterize external problems such as poverty, housing insecurity, or racism as internal problems requiring medication or talk therapy to “fix” the individual. Instead, we must direct efforts at correcting the societal problems that put some people into situations that are toxic to their physical and mental health.
Living wages, affordable housing, food security and social inclusion are systemic solutions that we need to advocate for and implement to provide a permanent boost to mental health for Bow Valley residents. We can also increase social connectedness among residents, ensuring that no one, particularly the elderly or others living on their own, suffer from loneliness and isolation. Municipalities can design towns to bring people together, provide natural spaces for recreation and opportunities for safe and accessible physical activity. The draft Banff Community Plan proposes a comprehensive approach to well-being, including improvements in many social determinants of health, and if implemented by council will do much to enhance the mental health of Banff residents.
Harmful use of substances is a significant problem within the Bow Valley and alcohol is the most common disorder for which clients seek addiction counselling. Alcohol is related to lost productivity, family violence and increased crime, including homicide and sexual assault in our communities. Alcohol was a factor in the two murders in Banff in the summer of 2022 and yet we lack detox facilities in our communities for those wanting to stop problematic drinking and robust municipal policies to address this important social problem. Some of the most effective methods for reducing drinking and its harms in municipalities are limiting alcohol licences and density of retail outlets and reducing the hours alcohol is served or sold. We have much work to do, and we will succeed if policymakers and community members work together to make our communities healthier.
Vamini Selvanandan is a rural family physician and public health practitioner in the Bow Valley. For more articles like this, visit www.engagedcitizen.ca.
