Aliçia Raimundo is a mental health worker, who has experienced her own struggles with mental health issues. She has been a mental health advocate since she was 13 and has even taken part in TEDx talks, sharing the story of how she has navigated through the labyrinths of her own personal journey in the mental health system.
Aliçia is now 27 years-old and has suffered from suicidal ideation – including thoughts of suicide and an attempt – as a direct result of her experiences of depression and anxiety.
Her talk “Aliçia Raimundo - Mental Health Superhero” was published in 2012 while still living in Waterloo, Ontario. In the talk, she discusses how she has overcome barriers, developed coping mechanisms and most of all, found hope.
She was recently spotted at an underground station by a woman who had seen her talk on issues surrounding mental health and was inspired to seek support for her own fight with such issues.
With the release of her TEDx talk and recent involvement in moderating online self-help groups, Aliçia hopes to fight the stigma around mental illness and contribute to a community that supports those struggling. Self-help, or mutual aid groups, have been popular among individuals struggling with mental health and/or addiction issues for a number of years.
They provide a platform for people to share their experiences and learn from others. These groups help people feel less alone, which is exactly what Aliçia aimed to achieve when she co-founded her own emotional wellbeing website to serve the community. She believes there is much to be gained from talking to people online and discussing issues relating to mental health.
More and more digital communities of people like Aliçia, who want to help others in whichever way they can, are helping to fill the gaps in mental health services in Toronto.
Services are falling short – whether due to lack of funding, the miscalculation of need, or an increase in the need of mental health services – as more and more people live in densely populated, urbanised areas.
These online communities are challenging the conventions of traditional mental health services through raising public awareness of mental health issues and offering support through online platforms, whether this be through volunteering services, or just being available to speak to somebody in the midst of a mental health crisis. Several Bunz groups on Facebook are promoting the coming together of communities, mobilising activism, and creating a platform for community engagement, all in the hope of creating a forum to discuss alternative ways of approaching issues like homelessness and mental health.
Together, members of the Bunz community are working towards filling the gaps in mental health services in the City of Toronto.
"What's really been beneficial to me about Bunz is having a community of people who are different than the people I would interact with every day at my job, when I was in school, or from my friendship group."
Bunz Mental Health Zone was set up by Richard KC in 2016. It currently has almost 6,000 active members. He initially started the group to provide an outlet for individuals who needed someone to talk to but were not able to seek formal counselling from a psychiatrist or therapist due to lack of finances.
Richard believes that from a social level, mental health is still a challenging issue to speak about: “There’s still stigma attached to it. For some, seeking out treatment or services can be daunting. Those who do seek out services are challenged by the myriad and complex systems in place, and those systems are often lacking in resources, or are not accessible at all.”
He believes that the shortfall is due to many “intersecting issues,” which have led to the need of an alternative option to care.
“The group was founded to help challenge a few of the problems those with mental health issues face, and somewhat as a response to the Bell Let’s Talk campaign, as I personally had a problem with how it was raising awareness on mental health and its skewed representation via the figures they chose to represent the issue, and to offer an accessible peer-to-peer community.”
What is so vital, Richard believes, is to offer an “immediate and safe space” where people can ask questions, vent and simply connect with others in the community: “There are so many individuals in the groups that have unique challenges, and often in their day-to-day life outside of social media there is no outlet for them to connect or speak about what they are experiencing. Our [online] community allows them to receive empathy and support.”
As more and more people move to cities in search of work – two-thirds of us will be living in cities by 2050 - the consequence of this mass migration means that mental health services will remain an invaluable and obligatory facet of city life, and will need to continue to grow and adapt.
Aliçia said wait lists for mental health services like CAMH, for example, are sometimes over a year.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital. They are a world leading research centre and also work with the government to help shape public policy relating to mental health services.
Their website reads: "CAMH is committed to providing comprehensive, well-coordinated, accessible care for people who have problems with mental health and addictions."
CAMH recently renewed its lease for the building on College Street, after fears that a rent increase by private owners of the property would have seen the building, so vital to many, close its doors and relocate. But given the importance of the building's location - both central, and close to University of Toronto's campus, an area where many of Toronto's young people can easily access - the importance of the building's location to the welfare of many seems immeasurable.
The fact that this didn't happen has given Torontonians a collective sigh of relief. But if it were to have relocated, in the midst of crisis, digital health communities, though not an adequate replacement for such services, may have helped.
According to The Varsity, there were 10,674 visits to the emergency psychiatric facility in 2016 alone, with 23.7 per cent of these emergency visits coming from individuals aged 16-24.
With such large numbers, the need for online volunteers to help prevent a mental health crisis in the city of Toronto becomes evidently clear.
The welcome message pinned to the top of Mental Health Zone page reads: "Welcome! This is a safe zone where you can share in your mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, etc., as well as to share tips, resources, and support."
Aliçia sees the inherent worth of online groups, like the Bunz Mental Health Zone, but also has reservations. While she has posted in many similar groups, met friends and received words of encouragement that helped her continue her vocation as a mental health worker and advocate, she has also experienced the darker side of such online groups. "I've seen abuse and racism," she said.
She also believes that some form of basic training and a knowledge of how to support people in seeking more formal services is crucial in peer-to-peer support: "There's a lot of times where they would appoint moderators and then the moderators would become problematic and they would kick them out. It's weird that it’s somebody’s business because in a weird way, you can’t really control it.”
Importance of qualified moderators
Richard, the founder of Bunz Mental Health Zone, comes from a design and sales background. He is very aware that his moderating team needs to be diverse to reflect the unique community of service users. He feels this is important so that trust and confidence can be developed in the moderating team: “My co-admin previously worked in the social work profession and many of the moderators come from a mix of non-profit, social, legal, academic and entertainment backgrounds, coupled with a myriad of identities.
“Often our moderators are dealing with their own mental health challenges. When coming into the role, we look for those that have some experience with mental health advocacy, an understanding or awareness of equality issues, and intersectional aspects of mental health related to gender, sexuality and race.”
Aliçia believes that many of the groups have been borne out of a need and sees the fact that they have the Bunz name to them as redundant: “As much as Bunz can write the guidelines and try to have some control over it, it's people. And people are going to do what they want to do and push them on what they want to push them on and all them out on things they need to be called out on.”
She had suffered with mental health issues for years and therefore does see the innate benefit of the Bunz community, and the way in which the organisation brings together a community of people who want the best for one another: "I moved to Toronto and had medical conditions that caused me to gain a lot of weight.
Invaluable support from online communities
"I really found a lot of support, love and education in those communities, and they really made me a better person to be able to partake in what other people were talking about and learning from it.”
With more and more online communities like the Bunz Mental Health Zone offering a space for people to talk about mental health issues, it is important not to neglect the advice and support of trained professionals, such as mental health workers, particularly when moderating these online groups. But it’s safe to say that for many, groups like Bunz Mental Health Zone offer people a hand at crucial points, when they feel they are falling.
A recent article by André Picard, in the Globe and Mail, highlighted that there had been 40 "mentally disturbed" people shot to death during encounters with police since 2000. This only goes to highlight the importance of functioning mental health services in Toronto and how, failing that, online digital platforms will step in to plug the gaps.
