Hello friends! I hope you aced all your finals and are enjoying your new year so far!

Today, I would like to share with you some details about the upcoming Annual Mental Health Event on campus!

This is the third year that UVic has hosted it’s annual mental health event. The event was first hosted in October of 2015 and again in January of 2016. The overall aim of these events is to inspire community action around mental health and increase awareness of mental health resources, including our own Student Mental Health Strategy. With this year’s event we hope to engage even more students, faculty and staff in the important conversation around mental health on our campus.

This event will feature:

•  a nationally recognized keynote speaker (Kevin Breel!!) sharing his personal experience with mental health challenges and discussing ways to increase positive mental health and wellbeing in our community;
• five courageous UVic students sharing their own challenges and successes with mental health through an artistic performance;
• and Chancellor Shelagh Rogers as the event emcee.

Keynote Speaker:

Kevin Breel is 22-year-old comedian and mental health activist who grew up in Victoria BC. As a stand-up comic, Kevin became one of the youngest feature acts in Canadian history, performing at venues like the Colosseum in Vegas to House of Blues and Rogers Arena. His work as a mental health activist began with his passionate TED talk entitled “Confessions of a Depressed Comic,” which has garnered over 4 MILLION views and has been featured in over 200+ media outlets. Kevin is a national ambassador for the Bell LET’S TALK Campaign and has been a guest speaker at more than 100 college campuses. His work has been featured by The Huffington Post, MTV, CNN, NBC, and The Wall Street Journal. Bringing a personality full of warmth, humour and unparalleled honesty and channeling it in to topics people tend not to talk about, Kevin has become an in demand guest speaker at colleges and universities all over North America. His debut book was released in 2015, titled “Boy Meets Depression,” a book that illuminates how the real challenge in life isn’t trying to be perfect, it’s accepting the dark parts of ourselves.

Student Performance!

For many people last year, this was their favorite part of the event.

The story-weave performance is comprised of 5 current UVic students from a variety of programs and backgrounds courageously breaking the stigma around mental health by telling their own stories of what it has been like to live as a student with mental health challenges. They will share some of the difficulties and successes that they have experienced along the way but ultimately, though their stories are all unique, their message is the same – we are not alone.

EVENT DETAILS:

Date: January 18^th; Time: 4:30-6:30pm; Location: BWC B150… reception with info booths (and free snacks!!) at 4:00 

For more information about the keynote speaker please visit this website.
For more information about UVic Student Mental Health initiatives please click here.

I highly recommend going to the event and I’m personally looking forward to the student performance and the famous keynote speaker!
I hope to see you guys there! 😀
And don’t forget to say hi if you see me there 😉
– Akshay

The views expressed in this blog are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the policies or views of the University of Victoria. I monitor posts and comments to ensure all content complies with the University of Victoria Guidelines on Blogging.