The first person with a serious mental illness to receive the Order of Canada could very well have been eating out of garbage bins instead of receiving one of Canada’s highest honours four years ago.
Edmontonian Austin Mardon said when his great grandmother developed schizophrenia in the 1890s, there was no hope.
Because of the existing therapies and medications, he said, it is a different situation today.
“They don’t work in all cases and they don’t necessarily cure the illness but they allow you to manage your life,” said Mardon, 49.
“If it wasn’t for my medication that I take and the fact I can apply for a treatment, instead of getting the Order of Canada, I would be eating garbage on 97 Street in Edmonton.”
Mardon was the featured speaker at the Friends of Medicare annual general meeting at the Red Deer Lodge on Saturday.
Mardon shared his experiences living with schizoprenia and his thoughts on mental health.
Nearly 20 years ago Mardon was diagnosed with schizophrenia. At the time, he was a promising geography graduate student from the University of Lethbridge with many achievements under his belt including being a junior member of the Antarctic meteorite field expedition in the late 1980s.
Instead of sidelining him, the then-30-year-old moved forward. He turned his attentions to becoming an advocate for those with mental illness. He earned a PhD in geography from Greenwich University in Australia.
He received countless awards including the Order of Canada in 2007, and most recently the 2011 Canadian Medical Association Medal of Honour for his achievements.
Mardon is unable to work full time because of his illness. As part of his mission, Mardon speaks to high-school students and businesses throughout Alberta about removing the stigmas attached to mental illness and recognizing the signs.
Mardon contributed to Alberta’s Addiction and Mental Health Strategy, the five-year mental health plan rolled out last week. The plan paints a broad picture of improving access to services by closing gaps in the system.
“It’s a good first step,” said Mardon. “I think people were expecting some specifics but it was meant as an overarching. You have to have the overarching before specifics.”
While Mardon applauds the government’s efforts to create a mental health strategy, he views the problems as societal.
“It’s more than just the government but people have to look inside themselves and say we should not ostracize this group to no fault of their own and we should not discriminate against them,” he said.
David Eggen, executive director for Friends of Medicare, said without any money attached to the five-year strategy, the plan is meaningless. He said the root of the problems with mental health care and public health care delivery is capacity.
“Lots of good people have done some good work on what should be done but there has to be the political will to actually make it happen,” said Eggen.
He said the next leader of Alberta has to recognize there are one million more people living in this province and half as many acute beds as there were 20 years ago.
“You can’t shuffle things around and expect to solve that problem without building your capacity in mental health and all forms of health care in this province,” he said.
“The public is not fooled by this idea you cannot restructure your way out of this mess you need to crack some eggs and expand the public health care system. If you don’t you create an unhealthier society system or you open the door to private health care.”
crhyno@www.reddeeradvocate.com