The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) has hosted Mental Health Week in the first full week in May, making 2022 the 71st year.

Mental Health Week is a Canadian tradition, with communities, schools and workplaces rallying to celebrate, protect and promote mental health.

This year, the theme is empathy.
When someone is struggling, you don’t have to fix their pain. 

• Tune in and see through their eyes. This is empathy. You can understand even if you don’t agree.
• Understand someone’s feelings. This is empathy. We may be different but we’re not on different sides.
• See the world as others do. This is empathy. The campaign calls for us to #GetReal about how we really feel and is based on the insight that people in Canada commonly ask one another how we are but that it is also common not to provide – or expect – a truthful answer. 

Engage with us on social media using the hashtags #GetReal #GetLoud and #MentalHealthWeek.

1. So what are signs of mental illness?
2. Long-lasting sadness or irritability.
3. Extremely high and low moods.
4. Excessive fear, worry, or anxiety.
5. Social withdrawal.
6. Dramatic changes in eating or sleeping habits.
   

What can trigger mental illness? What causes mental illness?

1. Genetics
2. Environment
3. Childhood trauma
4. Stressful events: like losing a loved one, or being in a car accident
5. Negative thoughts.
6. Unhealthy habits: like not getting enough sleep, or not eating.
7. Drugs and alcohol: Abusing drugs and alcohol can trigger a mental illness
8. Brain chemistry

What can happen if mental illness goes untreated?

• Without treatment, the consequences of mental illness for the individual and society are staggering. 
• Untreated mental health conditions can result in unnecessary disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, inappropriate incarceration, and suicide, and poor quality of life.

Join us as we recognize Mental Health Week and do your part to raise awareness of this “Silent Pandemic”.

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00:01 Introduction
Mentoring and Leading
Answer a Quora Question

10:59 Mentoring means
Two-way trusted connection
Using a structured arrangement (strategic alliance)
Both can learn from each other
Personally and professionally
 
12:05 Leading means Providing direction - you willingly follow
Providing guidance - you willingly accept
Asking a question - you willingly answer
 
13:20 Kouzes and Posner: The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®
Could refer to Exemplary Mentorship - with clarification
Model the Way
Inspire a Shared Vision
Challenge the Process
Enabling Others to Act
Encourage the Heart

17:43 Connection
Complementary - guide someone to safer practices 
Two sides of the same coin
Both are a gift given by the recipient 

20:45 Competition
Think about leading to mentoring or mentoring to leading?

24:40 Collaboration
Education resources
Psychological Safety 

26:00 4 Broad Useful Techniques (with Tips and Tools) when mentoring while leading
1)) Stay Interview and/or EXIT Interview
Forbes
2)) Relevant Communication - Attentive Presence; Responsive Listening, Story Sharing
3)) Ethical Decision Making Ethical values “we share
”With emphasis on trust, respect, fairness
4)) Vulnerability - openness to challenge - ever present!
Which means you:
Do not have all of the answers - there is no BS involved
Learn together https://youtu.be/iCvmsMzlF7o - Dr. Brene Brown
Courage - Calmness - Wholeheartedness - Creativity - Challenge
And more

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41:52 Quora Question and Answer
Q: I want to be an entrepreneur and start my own business. Do I need a mentor? What qualities do I need to be looking for?

A: Mentors provide three main benefits to entrepreneurs as they build their high-growth start-ups into successful companies.
1. Mentors open doors.
2. Mentors are a part of your team.
3. Mentors hold you accountable.

1. Candor. Don’t look for a buddy or a friend, but instead an honest person with deep experience not necessarily in your industry who is open to building a relationship based on mutual respect and trust.
2. Competence. A great mentor is extremely good at what he or she does, and has deep knowledge of areas of expertise.
3. Lived Experience. Have they done it before? Make sure your potential mentor has been through the trenches—whether that’s as a founder, CEO or in a strategic operational role—so you can learn from their experience and avoid pitfalls.
As they say, advice is cheap, but mentorship is worth its weight in gold.