In 2017, I was chosen as one of the 150 Difference Makers for Mental Health in Canada. [You may need to hit the X in the upper right hand corner to see the post.] The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health received more than 3,700 nominations from across the country.  So it was a surprise and an honour to be chosen.

Pamela Cowan of the Regina Leader Post interviewed me just before I went to Calgary where the winners from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba were recognized.

The award recognized more than forty years of participation in the Canadian Mental Health Association and other consumer/survivor initiatives.  After 10 years with Kindersley, Saskatchewan Branch and serving on the provincial Division Board, I attended a 1985 conference that launched the CMHA Framework for Support projects.

I served on the first CMHA National Consumer Advisory Committee starting in 1986 and was a founding member of the National Network for Mental Health in 1988, the autonomous consumer/survivor network, see current Facebook page .  More recently, in 2015, I was a founding member of the Mad Society of Canada, and am on the editorial committee for the History of Madness project.  

The Nominator at the Canadian Mental Health Association (Saskatchewan Division) Inc. was most familiar with my recent work to compile the archives of the organization.  She also noted the various research and writing projects over the years that dealt with Women and Poverty, the Mental Health of Older Adults, and my book Pivot Points: a fragmented history of Mental Health in Saskatchewan.