What Stella's Place Means to Me
I am very happy that my two favourite wellness clinics meet at last for wellbe’s spring market on Sunday, May 26th! They have a lot in common including providing holistic health care in a community environment and amazing behind-the-scenes leadership. I love that Wellbe offers both physical and mental health care, and Stella’s Place offers a balanced menu of wellness, art and clinical therapy programs. wellbe is my go-to chiro and massage place. Stella’s Place is, to me, the place that would have saved my daughter’s life.
Dr. Aliya and I go back 10+ years (pre-wellbe). My daughter, Breana, was her client initially, and then me. Around the same time, Breana began struggling with her mental health. Navigating the mental health care system was new to us, and it was difficult and complicated. Access to publicly funded treatment options were a minimum 3-month wait and private, at least 3 weeks wait and costly. We could not wait. As time went on, it became a matter of life or death. In times of crisis, it was necessary for Breana to be taken to the emergency department and we hoped for urgent care. It ended up being another dead end. She either wasn’t sick enough or was too sick. The treatment she received was sedation and she was released within hours with no recovery plan, no resources and no follow-up appointment.
After a few years of battling, Breana succumbed to her illness. While on a waitlist for treatment, she died by suicide at the young age of 20. Almost 7 years ago now. At the tail end of the years we spent searching for the type of care that would be most effective we discovered Stella’s Place.
What Breana wanted – what she needed - as a young adult was to create her own path, explore and exercise her growing independence, along with the support of clinical therapy, medication and others with lived experience in a community environment. She needed professional support while waiting for and in between sessions.
This is exactly what Stella’s Place offers young adults. A warm, welcoming, inclusive community environment. Low-barrier access to a holistic menu of programs, including wellness, arts and clinical therapies, at no cost and with peer-to-peer support, and more. Autonomy and empowerment to decide how to proceed with their care. If they need time to decide their path, young adults can access the café space. With these programs and supports available, young adults with mental illness will have the tools to manage their illness and live their best lives.
While our mental health system has improved over the past 7 years (for example, CAMH has since added a Bridging Clinic to their ED and most workplace health benefits have increased the limits for treatments) we’re still not close to meeting the needs and demands of today and there are still huge gaps – gaps that are life-threatening. Stella’s Place helps to fill these gaps. They are a privately funded organization that relies mainly on donations from generous individuals, organizations (like Wellbe’s spring market fundraiser!) and corporate sponsorships.
What was clear to me when Bre left us was that I needed to do what I could so other families wouldn’t have to endure the devastating loss of their child to mental illness, and to do what I could to help young adults have access to treatment. It’s said that grief is love with no place to go, so I made a choice to focus my love for Bre on advocating for young adult mental health. I have volunteered at kids help phone crisis text line and currently volunteer as a member of the family advisory council (FAC) at Stella’s Place. Starting this Fall FAC will be hosting a free Caregiver Community Program with bi-weekly informational sessions. Also, along with others, I organize an annual memorial charity golf tournament fundraising for Stella’s Place every September.
I share our story with the hope to reduce the stigma that continues to surround mental illness and suicide, and to ensure anyone with lived experience, including caring for a loved one, you are not alone.
- Martha McGroarty
Resident of Leslieville, Wellbe Family Wellness Client and Stella’s Place FAC Member
Please join us at our wellbe friends & flowers spring market on may 26th, 2024 - drop by any time between 11am-12pm at wellbe leslieville to enjoy! all proceeds from this event will be donated to Stella’s Place & wellbe will match every dollar raised. Can’t make it? Click here to make a donation.