4 Years and 50 Benches – The Past, Present, and Future for The Friendship Bench
In October 2014, I lost my son to suicide after a long and very secret battle with depression. So secret, in fact, that only he knew of his illness until the day of his death. Upon his passing, Lucas’s peers shared countless stories of him initiating conversations,...
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Bereaved Parents: Living Life in Black and White
July is Bereaved Parents Month, which, speaking from experience, is something those who have lost a child wish to ignore. Counterintuitive, I know. The reality is that such campaigns tend to ignite physical and emotional reactions in bereaved parents that we would...
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The Friendship Bench and World Suicide Prevention Day 2017
This year, World Suicide Prevention Day falls on Sunday, September 10. According to the WSPD website, more than 800,000 people die by suicide, and up to 25 times as many make a suicide attempt, each year. According to statistics provided by the Canadian Association For...
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Instagram Tops List of Harmful Social Apps
Kids, we get it; you don’t want to be lectured to; you don’t want to be told what to do, how to think, or what to believe. You’re happy to jump on a bandwagon of friends online and do, think, and believe what the crowd tells you; it’s the only authority figure that the...
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Announcing a Special Partnership with the Ontario College Student Alliance
The Lucas Fiorella Friendship Bench is pleased to announce a partnership with the Ontario College Student Alliance (CSA) to promote improved mental health among Ontario’s college students. The CSA is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works collaboratively...
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The Reason To Not Watch 13 Reasons Why Is The Very Reason You Should
There’s been much debate online and in schools the past few weeks over the controversial Netflix series “13 Reasons Why”. The series is based on a popular book by the same name, which chronicles 13 reasons why Hannah Barker decided to take her life. According to Harold...
Read More: The Reason To Not Watch 13 Reasons Why Is The Very Reason You ShouldHow a Simple Hello Can Save a Life
I’m representing the #YellowIsForHello team this week on a cross-Country trek for CMHA’s Mental Health Awareness Week, and so the #mentalhealthmonday tip for this week is inspired by the message I’ll be sharing with students from North Vancouver, BC to St. John’s,...
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The Friendship Bench Cross-Canada Tour For Mental Health Awareness Week
The Canadian Mental Health Association’s annual Mental Health Week is approaching! As always, during the first week of May (this year it’s May 1 – 7, 2017) Canadians from coast to coast to coast will be engaged in online and in-person events to “encourage people from...
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Don’t Worry, Be Happy
Tip from Jamaica: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” To help fight the negative narrative of “Blue Monday” today (known as the most depressing day of the year), we’ve declared it #YellowMonday – the most optimistic day of the year! Inspired by this effort and the well known...
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