Empowering Canadians to self-manage their mental health

Relief

Founded in Quebec, Relief offers self-management workshops for those living with anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder. “Everyone, and especially those with a mental health condition, need to be able to manage their own health,” says Martin Binette, Senior Director of Development and Growth. “Our self-management workshops provide tools to know the symptoms and signs to help people prevent the onset of mental illness or manage their condition through simple everyday strategies.”

While self-management has a deep evidence base, access to support on applying it to everyday life is few and far between. “We have a high success rate in helping people reach recovery and navigate the ups and downs of life,” explains Martin. “Our goal is to have the same success outside of Quebec and help as many people as possible across Canada.”

For Martin personally, self-management was key to managing his general anxiety disorder. “Ten years ago, I reached a low point and I desperately wanted a sense of control over my life, but I couldn’t do it alone. Most people think they need to be on a waiting list to get help, but Relief is able to deliver services in a very short time and has been shown to complement the effectiveness of psychiatric treatment.”

Relief is currently working to train up other organizations to deliver self-management workshops. “This is one way that we plan on expanding outside of Quebec. Right now, we deliver about a hundred workshops each year out of our Montreal office, but we’ve been able to quadruple that by building capacity in others.”