British Columbia Alliance on Mental Health / Illness and Addiction

Who is the Alliance?

The BC Alliance on Mental Health/Illness and Addiction is a group of 21 Health, Social Service and Criminal justice organizations that have developed a campaign to get the “ear of Government” in order to work in partnership towards an “evidence based” system of care.

Our mission is: to ensure that every citizen has timely access to services that are preventative, that reduce harm and that provide the best opportunity to achieve optimum mental and physical health and community inclusion.

The BC Alliance on Mental Health/Illness and Addiction is a group of 21 Health, Social Service and Criminal justice organizations that have developed a campaign to get the “ear of Government” in order to work in partnership towards an “evidence based” system of care.

Our mission is: to ensure that every citizen has timely access to services that are preventative, that reduce harm and that provide the best opportunity to achieve optimum mental and physical health and community inclusion.

Facts about the current state of mental health/illness and addictions in BC:

Have you attended a BC Lions or Vancouver Canucks home game recently? Look around. If the game is sold out, multiply that number by two for football or by four for hockey. More British Columbians than what you now visualize will suffer a “severe and persistent” mental illness in their lifetime. And more people than live in the city of Vancouver will suffer alcoholism or drug addiction at some time in their life.

…… yet two thirds of all these people will not receive treatment!

Many of them end up in jails - the asylum of the 21st century – or cemeteries.

As many as 15% of all police contacts and more than half of our prisons - are people who suffer a mental or substance use disorder.

And we often don’t often think about it, but mental illness and addiction are frequently fatal diseases. Did you know that a number of British Columbians equal to the full load capacity of a Boeing 747 Jumbo jet will die by suicide every year?

These people are our sons and daughters; fathers and mothers; sisters and brothers? These people are sick – not bad.

Have you attended a BC Lions or Vancouver Canucks home game recently? Look around. If the game is sold out, multiply that number by two for football or by four for hockey. More British Columbians than what you now visualize will suffer a “severe and persistent” mental illness in their lifetime. And more people than live in the city of Vancouver will suffer alcoholism or drug addiction at some time in their life.

…… yet two thirds of all these people will not receive treatment!

Many of them end up in jails - the asylum of the 21st century – or cemeteries.

As many as 15% of all police contacts and more than half of our prisons - are people who suffer a mental or substance use disorder.

And we often don’t often think about it, but mental illness and addiction are frequently fatal diseases. Did you know that a number of British Columbians equal to the full load capacity of a Boeing 747 Jumbo jet will die by suicide every year?

These people are our sons and daughters; fathers and mothers; sisters and brothers? These people are sick – not bad.

What do we do?

The Alliance promotes positive social inclusion through advocating for systemic change, educating, raising awareness and challenging stigma around mental illness and addiction.

Some of the ways we do this include meeting with policy makers (such as politicians and other government officials) to lobby for changes to legislation that will impact those affected by mental illness and addiction, giving educational presentations to large groups (such as the 2009 UBCM conference), and writing awareness-raising publications, as well as press releases and op-eds in the local media.

The Alliance promotes positive social inclusion through advocating for systemic change, educating, raising awareness and challenging stigma around mental illness and addiction.

Some of the ways we do this include meeting with policy makers (such as politicians and other government officials) to lobby for changes to legislation that will impact those affected by mental illness and addiction, giving educational presentations to large groups (such as the 2009 UBCM conference), and writing awareness-raising publications, as well as press releases and op-eds in the local media.