Patrick Dion is the Ontario director with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which aims to improve the health and social outcomes of people living with mental illness. (You can learn more about it by clicking here.)
I spoke to Dion about the prejudice and stigma facing individuals with mental illness. And he explained why he became such a passionate advocate for such individuals.
It turns out that Dion's awareness of mental illness turned personal while he was studying electrical engineering at UWO between 1985 and 1989.
"My brother, who was a student at UWO a few years behind me, suffered his first psychotic episode while at Western," said Dion, adding his brother has now dealt with bipolar disorder for 20 years.
"His journey . . . is the explanation for how I know that the suffering in silence has to end," he said.
Dion said his his family was largely unprepared for his brother's illness.
"Denial is a big part of it," he said. "My mother, who is a health-care professional, was unwilling or unable to acknowledge that her son was beginning to show signs of mental illness. Our family was like many families across this country (who think) this can't be affecting me.
"People ask, well, who are those who are living with mental illness?" said Dion. "Well, they are you and me, our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, our brothers - all of us."
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