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Nova Scotia mental health advocates honoured

JILL CHAPPELL jill.chappell@nshealth.ca @jill_chappell Jill Chappell is the marketing and communications lead of the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia. She’s an award-winning broadcaster, entrepreneur, community volunteer and mom to two active and

Six Nova Scotians have been honoured by the Mental

Health Foundation of Nova Scotia for their inspirational contributions to the mental health community.

Shirin Mehrpooya, Jacqueline Coulson-Clements, Mario Rolle, Steven Deveau, Nadine Léger de Blois and Allison Garber were presented with Let’s Keep Talking Awards last month during Let’s Keep Talking with Allison Garber, presented by Bell Let’s Talk. Let’s Keep Talking is a Bell Let’s Talk legacy event, first launched in 2014 as part of Clara’s Big Ride. The awards recognize Nova Scotians who are inspiring others while living with mental illness or supporting those within the mental health community. More than 200 people attended the Foundation’s free virtual event during Mental Illness Awareness Week thanks to the support of Bell and keynote sponsor The Carleton.

“The contribution of these individuals is changing our mental health community for the better,” says Starr Cunningham, Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia president and CEO. “Their commitment to providing peer support, reducing barriers to care, increasing culturally appropriate programs, and speaking out to eradicate stigma is ensuring more Nova Scotians get the help they need and deserve.”

The 2021 Outstanding

Youth Award, sponsored by IWK Mental Health & Addictions Program, was awarded to Shirin Mehrpooya, co-founder of AMPLIFY NS, a grassroots organization that empowers youth to safely and freely share their needs and concerns with local mental healthcare providers. The third year Dalhousie medical sciences student is involved in numerous mental health initiatives on campus and currently serves on the Mood Disorders Society of Canada Youth Advisory Council.

Jacqueline Coulson-Clements, an 80-year-old resident of the Annapolis Valley, was awarded with the Let’s Keep Talking Award for Outstanding Senior, sponsored by The Berkeley. Coulson-Clements uses her lived experience with Dissociative Identity Disorder to provide hope and support to other community members living with mental disorders. Coulson-Clements is an active community volunteer through CORAH, the Centre of Rural Aging and Health, and the United Church of Canada.

The Outstanding Healthcare Provider Award, sponsored by Dalhousie’s department of psychiatry, was awarded to Mario Rolle, health services manager for the Nova Scotia

Brotherhood Initiative. Rolle is a champion for health equity who actively works to dismantle systemic racism by increasing access to culturally appropriate mental health supports and services. Rolle recently teamed up with the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia to create the Brotherhood Fund, a grant that enhances the mental health programming of the Brotherhood Initiative.

Steven Deveau of 7th Step Society was awarded with the Let’s Keep Talking Award for Outstanding Individual, sponsored by J&W Murphy Foundation. After a childhood shaped by trauma, years of mental illness, addiction, crime and incarceration, Deveau now uses his lived experience and training to support others through anger and addiction recovery to make positive changes in their own lives.

And the Let’s Keep Talking Award for Outstanding Caregiver was awarded to Nadine Léger de Blois. Sponsored by Nova Scotia Power, this award recognizes an individual who acts as a support system for someone living with a psychiatric disorder. Not only is Léger de Blois the caregiver for a family member living with an operational stress injury (OPI), she also works as a family peer support coordinator. Léger de

Blois advocates for better care and services for families impacted by OPIs, and develops valuable programs, educational opportunities to support families in their recovery.

Finally, Allison Garber was recognized with the Let’s Keep Talking Award for Outstanding Activist. Garber is a powerful voice, actively working to break down the stigma associated with mental illness and addiction. She has helped launch a mental health website for first responders, a suite of online mental health services for post-secondary students and has developed a Mental Health Action Plan for Nova Scotia farmers. Garber is passionate about shifting how we view alcohol to celebrate, relax and reward ourselves to a healthier, more intentional life with, or without, it.

Congratulations to all our Let’s Keep Talking Award Recipients. Together, we are changing the way people think while providing hope and eradicating stigma around mental illness and addiction.

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2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

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