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Editor's Message
Visions In this journal, we hope to create a place where the many perspectives on mental health issues can be heard. The Canadian Mental Health Association is grateful to the Ministry of Health, who has assisted in underwriting the production of this journal. The Canadian Mental Health Association invites readers’ comments and concerns regarding the articles and opinions in this journal. Please send your letter, including your name, address and phone number to: The opinions expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Canadian Mental Health Association, BC Division or its Branch offices. Editorial Board 
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Provincial Mental Health Advocate announces disability benefits will be her highest advocacy priority Dena Ellery Nancy Hall, BC's new Mental Health Advocate announced March 6th that disability benefits will be her number one priority. Nancy was speaking at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Mental Health Association in Vancouver. Nancy determined disability benefits to be a critical issue after hearing from people all across BC, in face-to-face meetings and from phone calls from consumers, family members and mental health advocates. This is one of four system issues she will be working on in her first year as BC's first Mental Health Advocate. People across BC have been calling the Mental Health Advocate office, complaining about the income assistance available for people with mental illness. Nancy said the forms people must fill out are long, intrusive and are not written in plain language. She says people who are ill and unable to fill them out, and people whose first language is not English are among those who have found the forms a barrier to receiving assistance. In addition, people have identified that Canada Pension Plan (CPP) benefits represent a confusing and unfortunate situation. Some people receiving benefits from the province (Ministry of Human Resources) were asked to apply for federally-funded CPP. Initially, this was an attempt by the province to share the cost of supporting people on assistance. Those who were eligible for CPP would receive some of their current income from CPP, the rest from the provincial Disability Benefits program. Many people who applied for CPP were given a retroactive, lump sum CPP payment. Afterwards, people were asked to pay taxes on this amount, often after they had spent their lump sum. Many people who called the Advocate's office said they were left having to pay, for example, $200 back to the government, and were unable to afford this unexpected amount. And now, the federal government has stopped the lump sum option, awarding people their CPP benefits only in monthly installments. This means many who have been expecting a lump sum will now not be able to receive it. Nancy invited people to think creatively about solutions around disability benefits: how to resolve the CPP back-payment issue fairly, how to make applying for disability benefits easier, and how to ensure that people with mental illness do not have to fight so hard in order to access to disability benefits (see story on page 16, "Advocating in the income benefits system"). And Nancy agreed that people's ability to become well or maintain their mental health is severely impaired by the amount of income available to survive on. The other issues she will be working on include reviewing the infrastructure of advisory, advocacy and decision-making and service delivery in a reformed mental health system, developing a longer-term vision for the work of the advocate's office, and developing a network of mental health advocates in BC. Dena Ellery is the editor of Visions.
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