Help Nicole raise money

Six years ago our family went through the horrible experience of navigating through the mental health system in Ontario. The fear, anxiety, frustration and hopelessness we felt in madly trying to find a safe place, some knowledge of mental illness and the support needed while in crisis, was unimaginable. As we fumbled through, urgently trying to get help, the only answer we kept coming up with was to go to the hospital. Thankfully in Ontario we have government funded hospitals as an option. And we were grateful to be able to do that. We quickly discovered that it was the ONLY OPTION in Canada. That even if we wanted to go somewhere that wasn’t an overwhelmed, clinical and scary place, there were no other options. 

There is nothing healing or supportive or helpful for mental well being at a hospital. Hospitalization makes people feel that there is something wrong with them, that they are sick, they are disordered, dehumanized, abnormal, and where they are given medication to “fix the problem” and just put the fire out so they can "help" the next person. Hospitals are also filled with people with pure hearts that truly, in their hearts, want to help. And who truly believe they are. But the system is a stark and scary place with too much strain on it which makes it impossible for these people to do anything but put fires out.  We are sincerely grateful that we had this option BUT ever since the day we walked away from our loved one at the hospital that first time, I have had a vision. 

A dream to do better for all those who have ever felt that this world would be better without them. I knew there had to be a better way . I envisioned a place for people to go for help BEFORE it gets to the point of drug addiction, alcoholism and suicide. A supportive loving, encouraging, helpful place to help these people. Where they WANT to go to get better. Where they can go at any stage in their struggle. Whether it's just a phone call, a text, an afternoon, a day, a weekend or a year. In a safe place that feels like home, where they feel the love that life has for them, where the doctors and psychiatrists and psychologists are dressed in regular clothes who look like they are people who they can trust and who will support them. A place where they teach people how to care for their whole health, where they help them figure out where they need support, where they need medication and where they can guide them on getting through this thing we call “life” with their mental illness.  A place where they can help others to get through their trauma, so they know the wonderful feeling of helping others while they heal. A place where they learn how to live with their mental illness and a place to heal from any trauma that has brought them to this moment. 

I have finally found that “place”… Eli’s Place.

10 years ago, David and Deborah had the same vision as I did and their team of amazing people are on the cusp of making it happen. “Eli’s Place” will be everything I envisioned and I am doing everything I can to help them in their journey. This event is one of the ways that I am helping and am asking my friends and family to support me in my journey with them.