Sask. advocate opening and changing conversation around mental illness

Jim Demeray is working to change the conversation around mental illness in Saskatchewan.

The 37-year-old has spoken to thousands of students in the province while organizing several campaigns encouraging open and honest dialogue about about mental health. He also founded a mental health initiative called UnderstandUs.

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Demeray said UnderstandUs started as a side project and has since grown to a province-wide foundation that provides education for youth and schools, as well as awareness campaigns.

"We just know a lot of people suffer from [mental illness] and it's not really talked about and there's not a lot of learning about it," he said.

"We feel like it's super important to continue that conversation."

Demeray said both he and his family have had to address their mental health in the past.

"My personal anxiety hit kind of a peak when I was 26 years old," he said.

"When I was dealing with talking to people about it, I realized very quickly that the way we talk about it is incorrect and damaged, so I wanted to change that moving forward."

Not only does Demeray want to change the current rhetoric, he also wants to spark new conversations around mental illness.

"It's a growing problem with our youth and just our society in general," he said. "We're just trailing behind in how we talk about it and how we treat it.

If we don't start allowing people to feel comfortable talking about it, safe talking about it, then they're actually never going to improve their lives and be happier, and be more fulfilled and more functional with whatever they strive to be."

One of the initiative's recent campaigns is called Letters To No One.

"It was all about inspiring people to do random acts of kindness in the community," he said, noting that the campaign reached about 40,000 people through Facebook.

It also involves people who have struggled with mental health sharing their experiences and messages of hope through letters that are posted on the UnderstandUs website.

Demeray said sharing those experiences "allows people to give a broader lens of what mental illness actually is by giving real life stories and being a leader to others that may be going through something similar."

"There's a lot of isolation that comes with mental illness because you believe you're the only one dealing with it and you believe that your feelings are only yours and not shared by a lot of people," he said.

"It's super important for people to share that story so others know that they're not alone."

Another project Demeray is working on is called UnderstandUs University, which is aimed at providing educational resources online for people in Saskatchewan wanting to learn about mental health.

Anyone wanting to get involved with UnderstandUs can sign up on their website, which also includes resources for those wanting to get help.