​We​binar Series

​Mental Health Ambassadorship Series

The Brain and Mind Institute (BMI) launched its inagural series of micro-certification courses to raise awareness about mental health and aspires to encourage people to seek treatment and support for mental illness rather than suffering in silence. These courses started in September 2022 with an innovative engagement strategy that included a webinar series. This webinar series provided expert opinions on varied topics of mental health to help our general audience identify those in need and support them, promoting well-being for all.​

​Webinar 1: How Stress and Trauma Impacts Your Brain and Mental Health

With the understanding that there is both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ stress and that trauma contributes significantly to bad stress, let us go on a journey of discovery to uncover how stress and trauma impact our brains and, consequently, our mental health​.​




 

​​Webinar 3: Addiction and Mental Illness: Which Comes First?

​Mental Illness can be defined as “health conditions involving changes in thinking, emotion, or behaviour negatively impacting functioning in social, work, or family activities”.  Furthermore, many persons with mental illness also tend to be addicts. The questions then arise as to what comes first, the addiction or the mental illness? Does one contribute to the other or are they part of the mental illness spectrum? Let's listen to the experts and persons with lived experiences to better understand why these conditions co-occur so often. 
 

​Webinar 2: Is it Your DNA or your Environment that Dictates Your Mental Health? - The Power of Epigenetics​​​​

Remember the age-old adage, like mother, like son?  During this webinar, we add our voice to the debate, “What contributes more towards your behaviour; your inherited traits or your life experiences?” We do this through intellectual discourse between global north and south experts and add a tinge on the implications of culture on the power of lived experience to the debate. We will also learn how impact of stress and trauma can be transmitted across generation.​
 

​Webinar 4:​ Mind-Body Health: A Holistic Approach to Mental Health​

​​​The World Health Organization (WHO) defines health as a complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease. Further, WHO states that “there is no health without mental health.”
Therefore, a better understanding of how our bodies and minds link/connect should significantly mitigate the incidence of co-existing conditions, thereby supporting those with mental ill-health and chronic physical conditions.​​
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