Margaret Trudeau will be the Guest Speak at 2016 Stigma Enigma Annual Event

The Committee Members of Stigma Enigma Founder, local Family Physician, Dr Patrick Smith are thrilled to announce that Margaret Trudeau will be the Guest Speaker at this year’s Stigma Enigma Annual Event on Saturday Evening November 12th 2016. The event will be moved to Caesars Windsor Augustus Ballroom this year to accommodate the expected increase in attendance.

Margaret Trudeau is a Canadian icon, celebrated both for her role in the public eye and as a respected mental-health issues advocate. From becoming a prime minister’s wife at a young age, to the loss of both her son and her former husband, to living with bi-polar disorder, Margaret tirelessly shares her personal stories to remind others of the importance of nurturing the body, mind, and spirit.

Margaret is the author of four books, including her bestselling title, Changing My Mind, which charts her life’s ups and downs, and her latest title, The Time of Your Life, which offers women an inspirational and practical approach to creating a healthy, happy, secure and satisfying future.

Margaret sits on the Executive Advisory Board of the UBC Mental Health Institute as a community advocate, and she is the Honorary President of WaterCan, a charitable Canadian non-governmental agency that is dedicated to helping poor communities in developing countries build sustainable water-supply and sanitation services.

As a general practitioner for thirty years, Dr Smith has lost patients and friends to suicide. Recently he personally suffered the loss of both his nephew and niece to suicide. Shortly after this great loss Dr Smith decided that his voice locally to speak out about Mental Illness could be of value. He founded the Stigma Engima public awareness campaign and committee in 2013. Dr Smith was recently appointed as a director of the board of the Canadian Mental Health Association-Windsor Branch.

A group of ten outstanding local citizens and former basketball players in Windsor Ontario had a goal in 2013.

It was to raise awareness and reduce the stigma that inhibits most people with mental health issues from seeking help. This group began by providing funding to Windsor’s Maryvale Mental Health Centre, ultimately helping young people and families in the Windsor-Essex area suffering from mental health issues.

Maryvale is going to be the main recipient of the proceeds from “An Evening with Margaret Trudeau”.

Additionally this year, the Stigma Enigma Committee will also initiateannual bursaries which will be given to University/College students that choose mental health as their primary focus of study as well as Medical students enrolled in the University of Windsor Schulich program who decide to go into a psychiatry residency as a choice of their future profession.

STIGMA ENIGMA MISSION STATEMENT

• Increase awareness and need of community involvement in dealing with mental illness. In light of major government funding cutbacks, children’s mental health treatments centres such as Windsor Maryvale have suffered greatly.
• Provide mental health education to our youth (strategically targeted group ages 16-25)
• Reduce risk of developing mental illness or of becoming so desperate as to contemplate suicide
• Defeat the stigma that has bigoted people’s attitudes and fed the discrimination that many have endured
• Overcome the enigma – allow people to feel comfortable about talking about mental illness like any other disease
• Critically examine the overall funding of our mental healthcare system and help develop and implement strategies for much needed future changes. (mental health care remains underfunded and under-serviced province wide)

Tickets will go on sale by August 15th 2016 for this event.