Mental Wellness Fair

The town's fourth annual Mental Wellness Fair runs a Saturday afternoon at the Renaissance Centre, and the aim is practical rather than ceremonial: reduce the stigma around asking for help, and put people in the same room as the services that can actually provide it.

This year the theme is youth mental health. The centrepiece is a panel discussion called Plugged In: Conversation about Kids, Technology and Mental Health, which is the conversation most parents in this town are having at home already, usually without much to go on.

What to expect across the afternoon:

• A panel on children, screens and wellbeing
• Local providers and support organizations with staffed tables
• Information on the wellness dimensions the town's program is built around
• Resources covering depression and suicide prevention

Three hours is a long window for an event like this, and that is deliberate. You can come for the panel alone, or arrive early and work the tables without a line.

Worth knowing before you go: events of this kind are most useful when you arrive with a specific question rather than a general interest. Waiting lists, what a given provider actually treats, whether they take your insurance, what exists for teenagers specifically. Those are all questions the people at these tables can answer in two minutes and that take weeks to establish over the phone.

Free, no booking, and the Renaissance Centre is an easy walk from downtown parking.