Mental health, the focus across West Quebec

Olivier Pilon

CAP Santé Outaouais is celebrating the annual National Mental Health Awareness week. Launched May 3 with a press conference at City Hall, organizers emphasized the importance of the week and its subject. This year’s slogan is “All together for good mental health!”, with the goal of sensitizing people to the importance of maintaining emotional balance, of taking responsibility for their own personal mental health – and the best ways to improve it.

CAP Santé Outaouais thanked the local community organizations working in this field. Several activities are planned for the week.

Good mental health can be a problem for many people, regardless of their personal or professional backgrounds. The subject of mental health remains somewhat taboo, so problems can often be masked or hidden from public view.  It can be terrible just to see someone suffer from mental health-related illnesses, said the organizers.

Isabelle Côté, Director of CAP Santé Outaouais, emphasized the importance of discussing mental health issues and of helping one another, as neighbours. “Mental health is just as important as physical health,” insisted Ms Côté; “they are closely related. Poor mental health can have repercussions on a person’s physical state.” Likewise, diet, exercise, and personal habits impact our mental health – for all ages.

A state of balance

“Mental health is a (state of) balance that we must maintain,” the director added, agreeing that there is a lot of stigma attached to mental health problems.

During this awareness week, there will be activities across Gatineau, and details can be found on the CAP Santé Outaouais website. 

Within Aylmer, a Steps towards Action event took place May 7, with other  awareness activities throughout the week. This first took place at the Western Quebec School Board offices, 15 Katimavik Street.

The CAP, a non-profit organization, was created in 1990 with the purpose of promoting mental health and improving the standard of living of individuals and the entire community. All sorts of people are involved with this effort: seniors, adults and youth.