Bipolar Babe & Courtnall’s bring awareness to mental health
August 10th, 2011
Andrea Paquette the "Bipolar Babe"
One of the groups that Accent Inns through our InnAid program has had the opportunity to connect with is the Bipolar Babe . Although they are a fun group of people (you can get that from the name), the founder and President Andrea Paquette and her team take the challenge of removing the stigma about mental illness very seriously. The Bipolar Disorder Society of BC is the umbrella organization for the bipolar babe project and this new non-profit organization was incorporated in January 2010 and received charitable status in August 2010.
The Bipolar Babe project was officially launched in May 2009 and one major success of the project has been the creation of classroom presentations that focus on the sharing of a personal story of an individual that lives well with bipolar disorder. Bipolar Babe has also been extremely active in the community and media and are eager to take these chats free of stigma even further into the world and they need your support! Their society has fantastic goals and hopes to aid the local, provincial, and national mental health community. The Bipolar Disorder Society of BC has designed programs providing awareness about mental illness in hopes of eliminating stigma, discrimination and unwarranted fears of this condition.
Recently the Courtnall Classic golf tournament was held in Victoria to both help raise awareness of mental health issues and to raise money for care of those who need help dealing with mental health concerns. It is estimated that one in every five Canadians, close to six million, will develop a mental illness at some time in their lives.
Funds raised from the 2011 Courtnall Celebrity Classic will go towards purchasing mental health care equipment and funding patient programs for the new Patient Care Centre at the Royal Jubilee Hospital. The Centre will dedicate four full units and 82 beds to caring for patients with acute mental health needs, including a 10-bed secured Adult Mental Health – Intensive Care Unit. And, for the first time at Royal Jubilee Hospital, both geriatric and adult mental health patients will be cared for in the same building as other acute patients – an important new chapter in mental health treatment and helping de-stigmatize the perception that mental health patients need to be treated separate from other patients.
A Channels Hudson Mack and his team recently covered the Courtnall Classic event and did this great story on mental illness and Andrea of Bipolar Babe.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O-AN7acU0E[/youtube]
Thanks to Andrea and the Courtnall family for their efforts to help those who suffer from mental illness and to lead us away from creating and supporting the current Stigma around this health issue.
To learn more about the Bipolar Babe, Courtnall classic and mental health please follow these links.