A Carleton student is walking across Canada to promote mental health issue awareness starting April 2015 in Sydney, N.S.
Cameron Preston, a second-year criminology and criminal justice student, said he launched the project “Eternal Walker” in early January with hopes of standardizing the Canadian mental health system.
“I find the mental health system to be very provincial in nature,” he said. “I’m going to go across Canada to promote a standard, so there’s not too many discrepancies on who’s getting what services.”
Each town Preston will visit on his walk across Canada has a mental health building, where he will give presentations and be involved with various communities.
Preston said the project is fuelled by his own experiences with the mental health system in Canada.
“When I was 17, that was the first time I was admitted at [the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario]. That’s where I started to learn about the mental health system and how it works,” Preston said.
“Because I was 17 years old, six months shy of 18, it made it very difficult for me to access services because I was too old for youth services and too young for adult services,” he said.
Preston said one of his goals for the walk is to promote transitional services for youth who are 17-18 years old, to get the support and medication they need.
“Transitional services have a long wait list,” Preston said.
“Sometimes you’ll be stuck for years without a doctor because you’re an aging youth.”
Preston also said he had difficulty finding a job due to his history with depression. He said the existence of a police record under his name for his history with mental illness is problematic when searching for a job.
“Because of my history of depression, I am flagged in the system as a hazard for vulnerable people, even though I have never been violent in any way,” Preston said.
He said he can’t volunteer with anyone under the age of 18 because of his history.
Preston said he hopes to encourage employers to hire people with a history of mental illness, and to review their work policies to make them more accessible to people who struggle with similar issues.
Preston said Kate MacEachern is an inspiration. She walked from Antigonish, N.S. to Ottawa to promote mental health issues faced by soldiers in the military.
“I guess I take from her passion,” Preston said.
