You need to reach out to communities who don’t attend mindfulness classes. Barry Boyce, Editor-in-Chief of the Toronto Star, visits the Centre for Mindful Studies, where frontline workers teach Mindfulness to clients.
Members of the Centre for Mindfulness Studies Community Program in Parkdale, Toronto’s West End neighborhood, work with community members to provide mental health care for those who need it. The Centre provides training to frontline workers, who then train clients in awareness. Some of these clients become peer leaders, teaching mindfulness skills. The Centre is based on the vision of a community-centric approach to mental healthcare rather than an institution centric one.
What does community-based health look like?
Tita Agangco (pictured below) co-founded the Centre with Patricia Rockman six years ago and is responsible for the Community Program. Pat was working with staff and faculty that morning. She is responsible for all training and education and has made the Centre the premier place in Ontario for clinicians to receive mindfulness training. Tita stands in front of PARC, the Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre. Here, homeless and precariously housed people can get various services, including Mindfulness and a hot meal.
Tita: You can’t expect people to come to places that are intimidating, far away from home, and run by people who seem to be judging people to do mental health work.
“To provide mental health services, you must go where people are. You cannot wait for people to arrive at intimidating locations far away from home run by people that appear to be judging people.”
Leysa Kielburger, currently completing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, specializes in “community-based, culturally grounded, evidence-based mental healthcare, including mindful cognitive and behavioral therapies.” She is shown here in PARC’s Drop-In Room with Terence Williams. Williams is a PARC Member, Peer Mindfulness Leader, and Community Outreach worker at PARC. By walking in the door, you become a PARC Member. Terence: “When impatiently waiting for the streetcar, I practice self-compassion and repeat phrases like, May I live in ease, May I be free of torment …’, then I can extend this to others. May you live in ease, May you be free of torment ….'”The board is full of caring, dedicated, and highly accomplished people from the business, education tech, arts real estate, marketing polling research non-profit sectors, etc. (Then, there’s me.) The Centre’s leadership and staff will make you cry. The Centre’s founding members, faculty, staff, and board are all highly motivated to see this project through and make Ontario the showcase of mindfulness-infused community-based mental health aimed at public health. They also want to make mental fitness as crucial to our society as physical exercise. Paul Woolner, Co-chair: “The public health concerns of the last century were sewage and water quality. Hygiene was also a concern. These concerns will always be there, but the focus of public health in this century has shifted to behavior and lifestyle. “How do our behaviors and interactions as a community make us sick or promote wellness?”
Shelley LaHay is another peer mindfulness leader who shows off her t-shirt that she earned for completing the mindfulness challenge of a half-day in Toronto last fall. Shelley says: “Mindfulness helped me overcome my anxiety and lack of confidence. When I teach Mindfulness to people, such as the 3-minute breath exercise, I keep it simple. It can be difficult to explain Mindfulness. You lose people if you are too complex. “If you keep it simple, people can see how complex and deep it is.”
Heinz Klein and Terence Klein, two peer mindfulness leaders, retire to Pete’s Corner Diner across the street from PARC. The meeting room on the PARC’s 2nd Floor is currently being renovated. Heinz Klein: “People can become ‘out-of-breath’; Mindfulness can help them get their breath back. It is a whole body effect. Even if we had a small peer support group of two or three people, it could have a huge impact on mental health and the feeling that one is not dependent but independent. It’s not taken from you.”
Maintaining the front line
The board of the Centre held a strategy meeting on the 46th Floor at the Bay-Adelaide Centre, 333 Bay Street. This is Canada’s Wall Street. This is the KPMG Canada office. The artwork is original, stunning, and abundant. The view is breathtaking. The streets are below.
The board is full of caring, dedicated, and highly accomplished people from the business, education tech, arts real estate, marketing polling research non-profit sectors, etc. (Then, there’s me.) The Centre’s leadership and staff will make you cry. The Centre’s founding members, faculty, staff, and board are all highly motivated to see this project through and make Ontario the showcase of mindfulness-infused community-based mental health aimed at public health. They also want to make mental fitness as crucial to our society as physical exercise. Paul Woolner, Co-chair: “The public health concerns of the last century were sewage and water quality. Hygiene was also a concern. These concerns will always be there, but the focus of public health in this century has shifted to behavior and lifestyle. “How do our behaviors and interactions as a community make us sick or promote wellness?”
The board chair, Jeff Smith, COO for KPMG Canada’s Global Advisory division, offered to evaluate all new growth opportunities in the Centre in his “spare” time, with the help of a few board members and the central leadership. “We’ll pick the ones that make sense to us, figure out how we can go after them and win them.”
