A new mental health centre serving Yarmouth, Digby and Shelburne Counties is opening in Yarmouth in May.
Tri-County Mental Health and Wellness — located at 101 Water St., Unit 3A in Yarmouth — is opening its doors on Wednesday, May 1, with an official opening scheduled for Monday, May 13.
Board Chair Brenda Martin-Hurlburt is a mental health educator, life coach and nationally certified peer supporter who has been providing mental health services in the tri-county region for several years.
“Our purpose is supporting and promoting healthy mental health for individuals, families and community,” Martin-Hurlburt says. “The long-term goal is to have three 24-7 mental health drop-in centres in Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne, independently run by each community. The drop-in centres are for people who feel they are in crisis and need immediate support. Individuals will be impacted, families will be changed and workplaces will be improved.”
Martin-Hurlburt follows a recovery model, focusing on what individuals themselves deem a crisis. “The goal of the centre is to move people from crisis to management to wellness. Our centre is also going to focus on addressing the social determinants of health.”
Martin-Hurlburt cites the lack of sustained mental health services throughout Atlantic Canada as her impetus for creating the centre.
“One of the important parts of this is that there are no real supports for anybody, anywhere in Atlantic Canada. There’s nothing we have found, at this point, even close to what our centre will provide. So we’re going to be a test model, and we’re going to be rolling out a program that can be duplicated across Canada.
“The second most significant thing about the centre is the (health-care cost) savings it’s going to have on our province, because we can manage people whose crisis is not considered medically chronic or imminent.”
Some people living with untreated mental illness may not realize that it causes physical symptoms, Martin-Hurlburt notes.
“Depression, anxiety and panic disorder (examples of a few illnesses) have a physical impairment on the body, and people don’t understand what’s happening to them physically. People immediately go into crisis mode thinking that something physical is happening to them. (With people in this situation), you see several trips to the emergency room, and you see long wait list at the mental health-care system, which prevents the mental health-care system from supporting and managing chronically ill people.”
Martin-Hurlburt’s personal experience with panic and anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and obsessive thinking is what started her on this journey 25 years ago.
“A panic attack is very closely mimicked by a heart attack, and I thought I was having a heart attack,” Martin-Hurlburt recalls. “I was home alone with three small children, and I truly thought I was going to die. I got to the hospital, in full-fledged panic mode. They put (an anti-anxiety) pill under my tongue and sent me home. And that was it. The pill did nothing, and I had no idea what was going on.
“I’ve had this vision of providing mental health services for people who feel that they are in crisis, regardless of what that crisis is … and need immediate support to work through that crisis and gain understanding, so they don’t have to spend 10 years trying to navigate the system.”
Tragedies that have struck the region in recent years spurred Martin-Hurlburt to act and move forward with her vision.
Tri-County Mental Health and Wellness offers individual life coaching, group wellness journeys, family support, community education and workplace wellness. Community initiatives include suicide prevention and awareness, as well as understanding mental illness, grief and loss.
“The service is going to expand to all three areas in the tri-county, with the current main hub being in Yarmouth,” Martin-Hurlburt explains. “The plan is to build supports in Digby and Shelburne so we can open up community centres there, as well. In the meantime, until we have all the funding and staff, I’m going to be working in Shelburne at least one day a week to do one-on-one support and also facilitate one group program.”
She has been working with a network of individuals and organizations to get started in Shelburne. On Tuesday, May 14, from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m., Martin-Hurlburt will meet with people at McKay Memorial Library, located at 17 Glasgow St. in Shelburne. More library meetings will follow on the second Tuesday in June and the second Tuesday in September, until she finds a more permanent location.
Martin-Hurlburt is seeking a similar support network in Digby to help her get established there.
Other Tri-County Mental Health and Wellness board members include Denise Muise, treasurer; Alissa Dean, secretary; and Lynette Hayward-Byrd. They will be hosting their annual general meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, and welcome the public to join them at their Pier 1 location in Yarmouth. Two board positions are open.
At this point, Martin-Hurlburt and the other board members are working on a volunteer basis. Martin-Hurlburt says she feels driven to do this work because she sees the need for mental health services in local communities and knows how to respond. She has faith that others also see this need and will respond in kind.
Tri-County Mental Health and Wellness is seeking funding from individuals and the public and private sectors. Donations, including a $1,000 donation from Howard Hurlburt Construction in Yarmouth, are beginning to trickle in.
For more information, call Tri-County Mental Health and Wellness toll-free at 1-833-258-HELP (4357), e-mail [email protected] or visit the website at embracingwellness.ca.
