The morning of Oct. 3, more than 900 of Ottawa’s business and community leaders gathered for The Royal’s tenth annual Leaders for Mental Health Breakfast. Together, they raised more than $500,000 for mental health care and research at The Royal.
Over the years, the breakfast event has helped foster understanding about mental health by openly sharing stories, both heartbreaking and uplifting, of life with mental illness.
This year’s breakfast focused on relationships — how connections with friends and family can help someone who is suffering – and encouraged the audience to ‘get to know someone with a mental illness’.
Mental health advocates Sharon Johnston and Rachel Scott-Mignon shared the story of how they became good friends after meeting at a Women for Mental Health event at Rideau Hall. When Mrs. Johnston heard that Rachel was ill following the event, she and her husband, former Governor General David Johnston, reached out to her.
“Sharon threw always all her pre-conceived notions about what it is to have a mental illness and just tried to get to know me,” said Rachel, explaining how important it was to her to be seen as a whole person, not just an illness.
Dr. David Attwood, a psychiatrist and Clinical Director of the Schizophrenia program at The Royal, also spoke at the breakfast, supplying some advice for reaching out and being a friend to someone with a mental illness. One of Dr. Attwood’s key tips was simply: “don’t be weird about it.” Check out this Facebook live video to see what he meant.
"Sharon threw always all her pre-conceived notions about what it is to have a mental illness and just tried to get to know me."The audience was also inspired by 19 year-old Brianne Moore’s story of struggling with mental illness throughout high school. Brianne shared how support from a friend and a teacher led her into treatment at The Royal and have helped her become a strong advocate for mental health who regularly speaks to high school students about mental health through The Royal’s Is It Just Me? mental health information series.