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Locals create Sea to Sky Healing Project

New website features curated mental-health content
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The Sea to Sky Healing Project's collaborators are, from left to right, top row: Jackie Dickinson, Greg McDonnell. Middle row: Melahnie Moodie, Dave Clark, Shad Chomlack. Bottom row: Jack Crompton, Heather Paul. IMAGES SUBMITTED

As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, some may be having more difficulty coping than others.

It could be for a multitude of factors: concerns over oneself or family members getting sick; changes to one's employment or financial situation; the difficulty of socializing in-person; or being cooped up in the same space interminably.

In order to help people adapt, a group of locals has banded together to create the Sea to Sky Healing Project, which is online at seatoskyhealingproject.com. The site features a round-up of podcasts, articles and videos curated by a team of seven locals with different backgrounds in order to provide a variety of perspectives. Collaborators are Whistler mayor Jack Crompton, Whistler Community Services Society executive director Jackie Dickinson (who is currently on maternity leave), clinical counsellor Greg McDonnell, Coast Mountain Academy counsellor Melahnie Moodie, Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre executive director Heather Paul, Pemberton photographer and one-time minister Chad Chomlack, and project founder and Whistler Half Marathon race director Dave Clark.

Clark, who has depression, said he and McDonnell were talking about the mental health issues that would bubble up during the pandemic in mid-March. They eventually circled back to address those issues, and launched the site in mid-April.

"I was in my own right going through some very stressful times," said Clark, who returned from an abbreviated vacation and quickly cancelled the 2020 edition of the half marathon. "I'd be lying if I didn't say it was therapeutic to go through this process, for sure, having essentially lost my job."

Clark, the chief collaborator on the project, said it was important to garner a variety of viewpoints to reflect not only different ideas, but to reflect the diverse ways in which people learn and consume information. While the project may eventually include more original content, Clark said the early focus was to sift through the good information that was available and make it accessible.

"How do we take what exists out there, from podcasts to TED Talks to articles to other tools out there ... [and] put them in one spot, aggregated and pulled together in a toolkit kind of concept?" he said. "It's so that our community has a central place they can go to to maybe find some tools that are going to help them."

He added: "We want it to be written or presented in an average person's terms and we don't want much content that's really clinical because it scares people away."

McDonnell said he's sought to hone his own perspective in terms of what he's sharing, providing not only practical advice but also some content that challenges users as well.

"The content I've recommended has been around self-care and parenting and a bit of a philosophical nod as well, a philosophical orientation to approach chaos," he said. "Some of those lens help us understand some of the existential challenges that come with addressing chaos."

Clark said while the pandemic will affect those with existing mental-health issues, a main area of concern is those who are dealing with such challenges for the first time and may not have a toolbox or treatment plan set up.

"How do we help those people, who are maybe feeling those things for the first time, manage that?" he said. "In some cases, people might be able to get to our toolkit and listen to a podcast that might help them understand some of their emotions, maybe give them a little bit of a different idea of how to look at their life, maybe give them some management tools for being a little more present and mindful instead of really worrying about all the what-ifs."

Clark said while some may be able to manage with the content that's provided, he noted that the site is there to provide some peer support and is not meant to replace professional services.

"Some people may end up needing to find themselves in front of a counsellor and talking through a situation," he said. "At least, if we can get the tools into their hands, they may find a better way of living healthier mentally in the short term than if they didn't find it."

McDonnell added that he's not surprised some people will be faced with mental-health challenges for the first time, especially given the nature of Whistler as a tourist town and a so-called bubble.

"COVID is forcing us to accept some uncomfortable truths, whether that's around our consumption habits or our denial of things, issues that you may be forgetting about in this Peter Pan town of ours," he said. "COVID brings those issues, for most people, not all, right to the surface."

The Canadian Mental Health Association's Mental Health Week runs from May 4 to 10.