Anyone dealing with mental health issues will soon have a chance to discuss their problems with others in a group setting.
Eleanor Snitka, a Peer Connections Manitoba counsellor, is looking to start a Stories and Smiles group for people who are living alone or may be full-time caregivers and they need a little break. Hence the name.
“I want to dwell more on mental health than mental illness. And I want to dwell on the positive side of it,” she said.
“People can come and tell their stories and we can sort of celebrate their contributions that they’ve had.”
While she had thought about it before, Snitka said a meeting with a lady who was a full-time caregiver of her husband pushed the idea forward.
During that meeting, the lady started telling Snitka how, when she first left home from a small town in Saskatchewan, she had to take a train with her belongings in cardboard boxes, because she had no suitcases.
“And she went to St. Boniface Hospital to take nurses’ training,” Snitka added.
“She told me that story and she’d been a nurse in our area for many, many years, and I thought, ‘people love to hear those stories and those happy stories and those fun stories.’ So that’s what I want to do rather than dwelling on the negative.”
The meetings, which are open to anyone regardless of age, will be held the fourth Thursday of each month from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Dauphin Active Living Centre beginning, Sept. 26.
“I think it’s important for people to connect, you know, social connecting. It gives people something to look forward to. It gives them a sense of belonging and wellbeing, because they’re with other people and they’re not always alone,” Snitka said.
Snitka added some people have barriers preventing them from connecting with others, whether it be their age, their physical abilities or lack of transportation.
“So trying to make people feel included and belonging,” she said.
“We just want to have a fun time, a happy time. Because sometimes mental health is not always happy.”
Snitka feels such group meetings are important.
“Because people can share. And it’s still confidential. We still don’t have to share their stories with anybody else. And they can share their hardships they’ve dealt with in life, because all of us, from when we grew up from way back when, life wasn’t always easy. And it doesn’t matter when we grew up,” she said.
For more information, contact Snitka at 431-345-0353.
