Wellness Network Edmonton discontinued its services as of June 30th, due to funding changes. It provided peer support to folks with lived experience of mental health challenges through educational courses which were co-created and co-facilitated by people with lived experience and professionals, and was run by local social service agency e4c. While the Wellness Network will no longer operate, there are still a number of peer focused programs available in Edmonton.

David Prodan is Senior Director of Community Programs and Strategies at Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), Edmonton Region. “Some of the areas I oversee are the community education and training areas, which is where the Wellness Network fits in,” he explained. 

David shared with me some of the places folks can go to find peer support and education. “CMHA Edmonton has Recovery College which is similar to what e4c did with the Wellness Network, where we have those psychoeducational courses that are recovery oriented that are co-created and co-delivered by people with lived experience. We have over 30 different courses in the Recovery College and through our partnership and work with e4c we are hoping to put on some of the courses they had as well.”

He spoke about another service he leads called Prosper Place, which is a mental health clubhouse for people with lived experience of mental health challenges. “Prosper Place is a great place for people from the community to make certain types of mental health connections and find social opportunities as well as education opportunities,” he said.

Prosper Place, which is currently located in the far west end of the city, will be moving this fall  together with CMHA’s downtown offices into Centre 106. “It’s a much bigger space. We are going to be able to provide programs, both educational and drop-in. We are going to house our contact centre there - that’s through 211, 988, and the Distress Line and other connected support and help lines. We will have an office with peer support workers who will be helping with things like systems navigation. We are excited for Prosper Place to move because it gives us more space to do drop in programs and focused arts and crafts, goal setting and leadership type programs that were part of the Wellness Network. We are going to continue to do that work,” David said.

Another initiative to promote peer support in the community is a Peer College which CMHA is developing. “Peer support specifically is one of the growth areas at CMHA. We are building on that concept of co-production and co-delivery,” he said. 

“The idea with Peer College is that we will provide peer support training for people who want to work with peers. That could range from being a recovery college peer course facilitator to being a peer support worker or a peer leader of some kind in a community organization. There is a diversity of different peer roles that are starting to pop up in the community and it’s a worldwide movement really. The idea is that we want to prepare people with lived experience to enter the workforce with the ability to use that lived experience to help others.”

CMHA is also building a website at together4cmh.ca. “It will be a repository or a hub to find out what kind of training is available in the city and in the province. We are keen to let people know what kind of training and help there is out there for mental health,” David said.

David pointed out that folks can also find connections to programming through 211, where community connectors can help you find programming and places to find social peer support. 

“The spirit of the Wellness Network continues,” said David. “I know that there is a formal end through the e4c chapter but I do think that the programming that was happening is going to continue in the community in different ways.”

Corine Demas is the President of the McCauley Community League and is on the board of Boyle McCauley News.