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The Project

Our 12-month Harmonized Health project, completed in August 2021, set out to test the effectiveness of a client-first community-based model to improve mental health outcomes—a model not constrained by system priorities, funding models, or processes. The goal was to establish a new and integrated approach to supporting individuals with mental health challenges—through a client-first, caring, and compassionate lens. The HH model incorporates lived experience and family and community working alongside medical professionals and other service providers.

The Results

The clients’ results from the 45 individuals and 70 family members were outstanding. Individual clients reported a more than 80% improvement in their quality of care and coordination of care. Families reported a 93% satisfaction with the Families Helping Families Program, and in almost all cases, a family’s developmental strengths improved.

Documentary

Suicide continues to be the number one preventable death in Canada. After losing their son Braden to suicide in 2015 and with the driving question, “How did this happen to our boy?” the Titus family started the Thumbs Up Advocacy Foundation to drive positive change to mental health and addiction care from the grassroots level. The Foundation’s Harmonized Health project embraced a new way of doing things by integrating community, professionals, and physicians to develop a community-based mental health care and treatment model for individuals and their families. Watch as Kari talks about her remarkable addiction healing journey as a Harmonized Health project participant as she develops resiliency and learns to take self-responsibility and accountability.

We would also like to share a PIPEHOUSE documentary that was recently completed about TUF and the Harmonized Health project. The documentary was made possible with funding to PIPEHOUSE from STORYHIVE and is available for free on demand on TELUS Optik™ TV On Demand. The documentary, named TUF, summarizes the importance of the project through a client’s lens.

Content Warnings: The video discusses death, suicide, and addiction.

The video can be accessed through the following link