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Drive Fore Life making a difference

After a tragedy that stunned this community one family is doing its part to create awareness, fund research into mental illness

What do you do when your fit and popular 17-year-old son calls you on your cell phone, tells you he loves you and then hangs himself?

How do you deal with the emotions – the anger and guilt – when you had brought your son home from school to keep an eye on him and you took him to see doctors?

And when your son is gone, what do you do when you find out one of the drugs he was taking, Paxil, is now not recommended in Canada and the U.S. for teenagers, because in some cases it has "caused depressed children to become more suicidal"?

After a series of events like that parents may spend the rest of their lives trying to figure out why.

Then there’s a small group of people who find the strength to use a tragedy like that as motivation; motivation to educate and to make sure the same thing never happens to another family.

Kerry and Ginny Dennehy are these people.

The Dennehys made this choice in memory of their son, Kelty, who hanged himself on Feb. 28, 2001 despite the efforts of his family and others in the Canadian health care system to help him.

And the Dennehy’s have found a great corporate partner in the Fairmont Chateau Whistler to help them raise awareness of teen depression.

Now in its third year, the Kelty Patrick Dennehy Foundation is holding its Drive Fore Life golf tournament on Sept. 18 and 19 at the Chateau Whistler Golf Club. The foundation is looking to build on the $750,000 they have already raised in just two and half years.

Kerry Dennehy said his goal for this event was to help reduce the social stigma of mental illness.

According to, Sarah Hamid-Balma, the Director of Public Education with the B.C. Canadian Mental Health Association, events such as the Drive Fore Life are making a big difference.

"The really basic stuff about how to manage mental illness hasn’t changed that much and we really do know a lot about what works," said Hamid-Balma.

"But it’s about getting people’s ear and letting them know, and we couldn’t do that without the people like the Dennehys."

Kerry Dennehy said many people who have suffered from mental illness had thanked him for publicly raising the issue.

"The reason why so many people suffer is because there’s a stigma of shame attached; you can break your ankle or head open, but if you’ve got something wrong inside your head there’s a terrible stigma attached," said Dennehy.

Dennehy’s views are shared by Premier Gordon Campbell. At a Canadian Mental Health Association conference in 2002 he said: "Imagine what happens when someone in your workplace says: ‘I am suffering from an anxiety disorder. I’m constantly depressed.’ And imagine what happens when someone says: ‘I was skiing down the mountain the other day, and I broke my leg.’," Campbell said in a speech.

In 1961 Campbell’s father committed suicide. This is the kind of outcome the Dennehys are trying to prevent.

"A very low percentage of people affected by depression really report it… we’re trying to shine a light on it and bring it out in the open," said Dennehy.

"Because there is hope for people that they can bridge the gap and with the right medication and right psychological help, as well as friends and family, so they can learn to live fruitful lives."

Dennehy said depression can come "overnight" and affect people such as his son, who he said was a "typical young man".

"He (Kelty) left a coherent, sane note (after he killed himself) and when I got the medical report from the coroner there was no alcohol, no drugs in his system whatsoever. It was depression on its own.

"I tell people that God could be sitting on your right shoulder but if the black dog of depression was on your other shoulder then the black dog is so powerful it would win out.

"His (Kelty’s) defences were nothing, depression strips all defences."

Dennehy admitted he wasn’t prepared as a parent to deal with his son’s disease, but neither were many of the medical professionals his family turned to for advice.

"Kelty was not depressed all his life, the first indication we saw was when he was about 15 and it came out of nowhere.

"Depression can affect people like that, even people in their 40s, 50s and 70s can be attacked by depression.

"When Kelty announced ‘hide the guns’ I took him to emergency twice, I took him to a psychologist, I took him to the doctors, my wife and I were in fits, we didn’t know what to do.

"And the doctors were really not prepared, the psychologists were not prepared either.

"The doctors were fixing broken ankles and arms all day and we come in and say our son is suffering from depression, you could just see the pause.

"As we speak the medical profession, including psychologists and psychiatrists, are not up to speed with depression.

"The medication my son was on was Paxil… and it’s banned by the U.S. and Canadian governments because it actually promotes suicide, so how were we supposed to know?

"That’s not how far behind the medical profession is… we’re so far behind the eight-ball that private individuals and foundations have to take the ball."

Dennehy’s comments might seem strong, but there is a tonne of research to back his claims.

The U.S. Food and Drug Agency has released warnings about Paxil and addressed the lack of understanding within the medical community about drugs for mental illness.

"Based on the results of the new analyses of safety data from pediatric studies, it was found that certain possibly suicide-related behaviors, including suicidal thoughts and attempts, were more common in children receiving Paxil," one report on the FDA’s Web site stated.

"The risk of these events in the study was about three times greater with Paxil compared to placebo (sugar pills)."

In last weekend’s Globe and Mail Doctor Gabor Mate reported on a violent incident involving Paxil and a child.

"Treating a child’s depression as merely a chemical imbalance is to deprive her of the most important and most effective assistance: personal contact with a compassionate and preferably well-trained caregiver," wrote Mate.

To get involved with Dennehy’s fundraiser or for more information about mental illness check www.thekeltyfoundation.org or call 604-938-0588.

For professional care call the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) hotline at 1-800-950-6264.

The majority of money raised during the Drive Fore Life will go towards funding mental health research at UBC and a training facility on the grounds of the B.C. Children’s Hospital.

Some of the money will also go to support a schools initiative from the Canadian Mental Health Association, which is going to send some representatives to Whistler Secondary School and put on an educational play inspired by a mental illness at MY Place in October.