Focused on their dream jobs: Photography exhibit kicks off mental health awareness week

Local News

By DAVE DALE The Nugget


The barriers to employment for people battling mental illness are illustrated in a new exhibit at Discovery North Bay.

Photovoice: My Dream Job, a collection of photographs and comments focusing on real-life career aspirations, was introduced Monday to kick of Mental Illness Awareness Week.

"It seems like a lot of people are pulling for me," said Shane, 30, a patient at the Northeast Mental Health Centre who took part in the grassroots initiative looking at how they can improve social integration.

Shane started experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia when he was 19 years old and missed the time in life when his peers went off to school and started building careers.

The stigma of mental illness isn't the only barrier for him and others with similar challenges. Not having a driver's licence and the side-effects of medication require flexible work arrangements. Both are impediments to finding work.

"Lack of education is one," he said, explaining he'd like to take graphic arts in college, and become a professional cartoonist and musician.

Shane said it's hard to look for work when he knows many people have a prejudice.

"Sometimes I feel a bit down about it . . . I don't think they see past my mental illness," he said, adding that he'll take any job in the meantime to give him a "sense of responsibility."

Other patients involved in the project hope to work on farms, be mechanics, hairstylists or disc jockeys.

Tamara Dube, a co-facilitator for the Photovoice group, said she works with the HOPE team that concentrates on Healing Opportunities Promoting Empowerment and the project has taught valuable lessons to many.

Local photographer Ed Regan was brought in to show the participants how to use a digital camera and how to frame their photos.

Dube said it's not easy for some people to explain in words what they feel and experience, and by helping them use a camera they were better able to express those emotions.

"They can see something that brings light to their life and say, 'That's what I want to do,'" she said.

"I learned many, many things," Dube said, including how important employment can be as the foundation of someone's self esteem and sense of belonging to the community.

"We shouldn't take our jobs for granted . . . we get to do what we love and get paid for it. We're lucky."

Having a job, she said, is an important step in the recovery journey but it's hard to reach that next level when 93% of people with mental illness are unemployed.

Those with mental health issues are often not good at projecting confidence in interviews, Dube said.

Maryline Pillet of the North Bay and District Multicultural Centre dropped into the gallery to see what the exhibit was all about.

"It's very impressive, and I think it's true, it's very difficult to exist without a job and they showed that very well," Pillet said.

An immigrant from France, she was hired to help expand their French services and work with the North Bay Newcomer Network which assists people settling in this area of Northern Ontario.

Pillet said the exhibit gave her the idea to perhaps find a way to incorporate someone with mental health issues into their team.

ddale@nugget.ca

Article ID# 2785356