Jayne Melville Whyte (Jayne) is currently historian and archivist with the Canadian Mental Health Association (Saskatchewan).  She calls herself “Mental Health Expert by Experience and Research.”  She has survived the mental health system since 1965 and stayed active in CMHA since 1975, a pioneer in speaking up as a person with lived experience of mental illness. 

In 2017, Jayne Whyte was one of 150 Canadians chosen as a Difference Maker for Mental Health from among more than 3,700 nominations.  The Canada-wide promotion was launched by the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health,Toronto.

Her approach to mental health is shown in the name of her website,  mentalhealthfragments.ca with the tagline “because I can’t call it a mental health system.”

Jayne is the author of Pivot Points: a fragmented history of Mental Health in Saskatchewan. She also has a chapter, “Life After Suicide,” in Much Madness, Divinest Sense.  These books are available for sale on this site.

Her current project, Framework for Support:  A Retrospective 1984 – 2004 summarizes the documents and projects of the consumer empowerment and community reinvestment initiative.  Jayne was personally active at branch, division {provincial} and national levels of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA)  during this period.

Through articles and books, speaking conferences and interactive workshops, Jayne encourages and educates people who live with mental illness.  She suggests resources for professional and family caregivers who care for them.  Scholars and policy makers gain facts of the history and insights into context as seen by someone most affected by formal and alternative mental health services. 

Jayne will be posting fragments of history and morsels of information based on her research.  More of Jayne’s stories and thoughts are at Jayne Personal

She looks forward to visits with her two grandsons who live near Saskatoon, shown here with her son on the trampoline.