Sadly, I read yet another news article about a young individual taking their own life.

So, what is considered to be the Happiest time of the year, this young woman decided that Christmas Eve was going to be her last day on earth.

I’m not going to talk about how successful this 26-year-old Inuk woman was, or the traumas she’s experienced, or the messages she tried to share in her music and songs, or all the good things she did for her Inuk family, friends and community.

Her accomplishments and to-do-list are inspiring, so please take the time, do some research, and read up on Kelly Fraser.

What I’m going to talk about is how we deal with individuals with mental health issues.

Mental health is a huge topic, so I will narrow this discussion down to two types of mental health awareness and acknowledgement that is often brought to our attention.

The first one that I will talk about I’ll use the story of Kelly Fraser, who confirmed acknowledgement and acceptance, in that she knew she had mental health challenges and bravely shared that with her family, friends, community and fans.

I’m going to accentuate the words “bravely shared”, because to share, exposes vulnerabilities and weaknesses, which goes against everything we’re taught, while growing up.

These vulnerabilities and weaknesses can be quickly and dangerously exploited, through the use of social media and the internet, which dramatically escalates the individual’s mental health challenges, to the point of a potential, impossible salvation.

I’m not sure what her mental health care and support consisted of, so it is difficult to assess what could have been done better.

All I know is that we failed her, and we will never know why she did what she did.

That’s sad, because we will never learn from our mistakes or failings.

The second mental health acknowledgement and acceptance I would like to talk about is the one where the struggling individual keeps everything to themselves.

They don’t share or ask for help, because they may be afraid of being embarrassed, being teased, being bullied, being accused of vying for attention, or feeling that family and friends will view them as being weak.

There may be some subtle hints and clues that the individual is suffering, especially with depression, but generally the acknowledgement and acceptance only happens after that individual takes their own life, then all you hear in the news is that the family and friends are shocked because they had no idea, that individual, had mental health issues.

Then you would hear, “If only he would have come forwarded and shared his challenges, and asked for help, then all would have been better”.

Well, we all know how well that process of support and treatment worked out for Kelly Fraser.

I want to go back for a moment and continue discussing the individual that hides their challenges.

Even though the world is working towards creating more awareness and acceptance of mental health issues and challenges, there still seems to be a gap in training, of all of us, to recognize and acknowledge who needs immediate help.

We tend to dismiss some signs, especially depression, because in today’s world it’s starting to become more commonplace, so the one’s with chronic and deeper depression may be over-looked and dismissed.

Treatment and support can be very individual case-to-case, but if the help is given soon enough, then maybe we could reduce the number of suicides.

I’m all for the world-wide Mental Health acknowledgement and the plans to get better with support and treatments.

Mental Health is a very complex issue which requires the talents of many highly trained professionals, to inform and teach to the masses, continually over the years.

But, at the same time we need to reduce or ultimately eliminate some major influences and possible causes of depression...