Hundreds gather for public mental health forum
Posted Oct 7, 2013 05:17:21 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A crowd packed the Halifax Forum for a discussion about mental health in the city on Monday.
With the forum taking place during the provincial election campaign, mental health policies were top of mind.
The three main provincial parties responded to several questions asked by the coalition about what they will do for mental health, if elected, said Judith Fingard, who helped organize the forum.
“All of the parties seem to suggest that they are very interested and they are going to continue with implementing the strategy as our current government has started,” said Fingard.
The forum hopes to be influential when it comes to policy development, she said.
The Mental Health Coalition of Nova Scotia’s Co-Chair Susan Kilbride-Roper said the forum aims to find out what Nova Scotians feel are priorities when it comes to Mental Health, and bringing those issues to the attention of politicians.
“It’s an issue that affects one in five Nova Scotians this year, one in three lifetime,” explained Killbride-Roper. “It impacts all of us, either as people living with a mental illness, or people in the community including family members, friends and colleagues.”
She said she hopes whoever wins the election Tuesday will make mental health a priority for their government.
Participating in the forum was a cross section of the mental health community. Many students, non-profit groups, and government organizations came out.
