Good News

Pathways Clubhouse is a certified charter member of the Clubhouse International

Treat others as you want

to be treated

April 2018

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Directors’ Report

Our 4th annual Taking Care of Business Breakfast was held on

April 18th with 240 people in attendance. It was a chance for

Pathways to connect with our business community and thank

the individuals and businesses who have supported us in the last

year, as well as the employers who supported our employment

programs. Thank you all for your amazing work in making this

event a success! In particular, thank you to David L. for so

bravely sharing his inspirational story of recovery. So far, we

have raised over $19,000 and gained several connections with

the business community.

Pathways Clubhouse, along with our 4 community partners, re-

ceived the Constellation Award at the Volunteers are Stars

Awards for our Storeys Project. Congratulations to all of our

Clubhouse members, staff, board, volunteers, supporters and

partners - Coast Mental Health, SUCCESS, Tikva, and Turning

Point. Also, thank you to Richmond Cares, Richmond Gives for

this recognition.

The RCMP will be hosting a BBQ for Pathways on Wednesday,

May 16. Burgers and hot dogs will be served at no cost on the

4th floor patio. Come join us!!

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Food And Fun Unit

T his month the kitchen has been busy making lunches every

day! Thanks to everyone who comes helps and eats lunch at

Pathways, we appreciate you!

We thank you all our loyal members, with out you we can’t

serve lunch on time.

One of the big jobs we have to do around here is the dishes. We are

always making a mess! Thanks to James Lok who comes to help

with this big task .

If you want to make a big difference in the kitchen, or just want to

keep busy for a little while, come spend some time in our unit

There is always something to do.

Thank you to our member Stanley who helps every day setting up

the tables, it is an important thing to do first thing in the morning.

We also thank June, Karim Terrance, David L, Sai, Henry, Sherri

and many more, thank you for helping at lunch time

One of the yummy and healthy choices is our Asian Salmon

Salad, a ginger soy marinated fillet atop a delicious salad. Beef

Curry is also popular!

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We said goodbye to our practicum student, Jacqueline. It was a great experi-

ence and we wish her well! Our unit also welcomed Mari, who is covering

for Suzanne while she is away. You may recognize Mari as a previous week-

end staff from the old building. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting

him, come to the third floor and say Hi!

Some people have been asking about hospital outreach and Bridgehouse. We

go to the hospital every second Tuesday at 1:15pm and to Bridgehouse every

second Thursday around 10:00am. Let us know if you’d like to come too.

The Young Adult Program will be doing an arcade social this month with

Pascale and Alison. We are also trying to plan a bunny or dog yoga class–

stay tuned for exciting details!

We want to thank Wesley and Shirley for diligently completing our attend-

ance stats every week. And thanks to Ella, who does our monthly tour stats.

Since moving to our new building, we’ve had an increase in tours. If you

know an adult with a diagnosed mental illness ask them if their interested in a

potential member tour. We also offer tours for community organizations and

tours conducted in Manadarin or Cantonese. To book a tour, we just need to

receive a call or email from the interested person(s).

Bessie and Mari at the 2016 Christmas party at the old clubhouse:

Membership and Business Unit

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March was a very active month, figuratively and literally.

This month we are trying out a slideshow that will show on the YAP TV. It

will show upcoming events, important news, clubhouse celebrations and…

ideas that you may have. If you would like to contribute, please drop by our

unit and say, “hi”.

D & D this month had our best turnout so far – 16 members! We discussed

Work Ready Skills and dined on ice cream sandwiches.

Congrats to Blair for successfully completing his T.E. site at Heatherbrae

shop.

Congrats to Jim Young for his 20th anniversary working at Pathways. Thank

you for all that you have done for members and staff. We really appreciated

it, Jim!

633 glorious steps. That was the Urban Grind. We did it, and we had fun do-

ing it. And we learnt what it means to push yourself beyond what you

thought you could do. Well, same time, same place, next year. We’ll be there.

You can be there too.

Career & Housing Unit

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Taking care of Business Breakfast

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Taking care of Business Breakfast

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Treat Others as you want to Be Treated

This issue really touches home right now, because I am manic and have been a patient at Bridge House earlier this month and two months last year. Unfortunately, when I am manic I’m very angry and get frustrated easily. I feel like people are picking on me. I’m still adjusting to my meds, so hopefully this will be better down the road. Having said that I realize that I have to stop and not react and try to think things through logically. This is what I do know; the staff at Bridge House have to deal with 10 pa-tients and I realize they are human and are doing a terrific job. It must be daunting at times for them to keep track of everybody's meds and daily plans. The same with Path-ways, the staff do a fantastic job and I greatly appreciate them. I only hope that people will forgive my irritability and realize that’s not who I am. I need not to react so quickly when I feel someone is treating me badly as I go through this med change and I only hope that when people are irri-table that we have patience with them, as we don’t always know their circumstances. Judy W.

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Some call it the “Golden Rule”. Other’s call it the “Law of Reciprocity”. We also know it as the phrase “Treat others the way you want to be treated” Ideally, we want people to treat each other as they want to be treated. But why do feel like we need to help other people and why does it feel so good to do it? Wouldn’t it be easier to just get things done yourself and not have to worry about others? If you think back to early humans and early civilization, people have survived so long because we’ve learned to share food and other resources amongst one another. Even to this day cultures across the world teach their chil-dren to share, take turns, and give back to other people who have helped us. Treating others the way we want to be treated is important for being in the clubhouse. Next time someone does a kind deed for you, reciprocate it! It’s all part of making the club-house community more welcoming and friendly!

Mari D.

Treat Others as you want to Be Treated

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Anxiety Presentation

On the evening of March 14th I attended a information seminar on anxiety presented by Dr. Gabriela Ionita at the Richmond General Hospital Auditorium. It had been orga-nized by Pathway's very own Public Education Depart-ment. The meeting was well attended with Pathways members making up a good 15% of the one hundred or so at-tendees. Dr. Ionita explained that a certain level of anxiety is found in everyday life in just about everybody. Some-times this type of anxiety can improve performance, as for example for when giving presentations. Deeper levels of anxiety, she explained, are better managed when the source of the anxiety is confronted. The doctor gave an example of how seeing a horror movie as a child had made her react badly when seeing a doll, even her children's dolls. She explained that if she had run away from facing the dolls then the anxiety would have just grown. Instead she didn't shy away and gradually her anxiety around dolls decreased. The one and a half hour presentation went by quickly and my impression was that most of the crowd thought that their time had been well spent. Andy B.

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Art Therapy

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David Lin’s Speech (page 1)

Hi, my name is David Lin. I am a member of Pathways clubhouse.

As young as eight I started getting glimpses that life was hopeless and

started contemplating life and death, eventually suicides.

In high school, I tried participating in grade 8, and realized that teach-

ers aren’t paid very well and a lot of them take things very personal-

ly. At the time with my dad in Taiwan dealing with family issues, my

mom working an IT job with a lot of overtime, and my teachers, I was

lacking guidance and wasn’t taught much moral values, life lessons

and so on. Almost everything was self-taught, and just good enough

that there weren’t any red flags and flew under the radar, except per-

sonal hygiene.

From 6th grade on throughout high school, my suicidal thoughts be-

came more frequent. They started out as thoughts, then detailed action

plans, eventually an acceptance. Many things I did was to distract my-

self from life. I played video games, sports, and wasted time with

friends, but it was more for the escape rather than the friendships and

the games.

I was lucky to have found Comedy Central while watching TV and

was able to find humour in my situations and learned to laugh at my

problems.

After High school, I had minimal motivation in me to do anything. I

had no idea what to do with my life or if was life even worth liv-

ing. My biggest motivation to do anything was to make my parents not

nag. ………………………………………………………….next page

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I turned 19, I started drinking with my friend, and at 21 I got in an acci-

dent driving under influence almost killing a couple along with my

friend.

Not long after, I attended a program for youth with barriers to employ-

ment called kaleidoscope. There I learned filming along with employ-

ment skills. I also met people who are now really close friends.

Through kaleidoscope I was inspired to go to Vancouver film school

for 3D animation. I finished the year long program but with many

bumps along the way. It was the first time I wanted something and

committed to it for a year. It was the first time that I had to be with the

same group of people for hours everyday for an entire year, sometimes

even overnight to finish projects. It was there I learned teachers takes

things personally even on private school salary. Also, it was the first

time I fell in love with someone and my mind went completely insane.

By the time I got my diploma, I wasn’t functioning properly anymore.

Or maybe I had become aware of how improper I had always been

functioning.

That’s when I decided to seek help. I saw a psychiatrist around the

same time I got my first job as a 3D animator. I was diagnosed with

GAD which I thought wasn’t right, but I trusted him, so I took the med-

ication, but it didn’t help. At work, my job performance went down, I

wasn’t learning anything, I wasn’t contributing and my coworkers took

things personally. Soon after, I quit. For the next year and half, I rent-

ed out my apartment on Airbnb, and did various labour jobs to support

myself. I was too ashamed to tell my family I had quit my job, and

along with other factors, for a year, I was doing various substances.

…………………………………………………………………..next page

David Lin’s Speech (page 2)

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After about year and a half after I had quit my job, I told my sister that

I had been laid off. She hired me at her fitness studio through a sum-

mer grant. And 2 months into the job, I had become manic. As this

happened my sister’s friend’s sister had committed suicide. My sister

was afraid the same might happen to me. And she was right.

With my family’s help, I went to see a psychiatrist whose treatment

relied more than just putting me on medication. After a year of treat-

ment, I thought I’d get a job so I don’t just rot away and stare at my

dad all day. I went to my employment counsellor who recommended

me to check out Pathways.

She explained to me a little bit about the clubhouse model and the tran-

sitional employment program, which had gotten my interest. When I

went on the tour and saw what the clubhouse had to offer, I knew I did-

n’t need the transitional employment program. What I needed was rou-

tine, a place to socialize, not stare at my dad, everything I need for my

mental health, the clubhouse has. One of the units in the clubhouse is

the kitchen. If you’ve ever been there, it has a tiny door in the front

that’s almost designed to discourage people from entering. And it’s

loud so you can have private conversations. And also there’s a back

door that very few people uses, perfect place to socialize. So I was in

the kitchen exclusively for like the first 3 months.

I was offered a transitional employment job only 6 weeks after becom-

ing a member. I thought it’d be a good fit, I can wake up, walk around

for 2 hours a day, 4 days a week, and get some exercise in. And the

time is flexible too. It started well, but the time was too flexible. I

started to procrastinate, I would start later in the day, sometimes I’d

even put it off and combine shifts together. It was anything but routine

for me. Next page………………………………...

PAGE 14

David Lin’s Speech (page 3)

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David Lin’s Speech (page 4)

Shortly, after a month I told them I couldn’t do it anymore. The staff

didn’t hold that against me. They just told me the new guy is much

younger and better looking. So everything was good.

I’ve never been to other mental health programs so I can’t compare.

But at pathways I don’t feel like a patient. I’ve been given many re-

sponsibilities, the most recent being this. I’ve been working on imple-

menting a POS system which allow members and staff to pay for lunch

and snacks easier. I’ve installed several features in the kitchen. I’ve

fixed many things in the kitchen. I’ve nailed and screwed a lot of

things onto walls. There were some turnovers in kitchen staffing since

I became a member and I was in each of the interviews during the hir-

ing processes. 1 of the staff who left was my TE site manager. When

she left I was given the task of training her replacement for the job

site. I’ve also been selected to represent Pathways at the Canadian

Clubhouse Conference in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

I excel in many things, but having these responsibilities and be ac-

countable-ish makes me feel like I matter and gives me a certain confi-

dence in myself that kinda fills in some of the life lessons I’ve missed

earlier in life.

There are many things I’m still working on and still need to start work-

ing on, and that’s why I go to Pathways whenever I can. Like I have

problems taking compliments, I don’t know how I’m suppose to feel or

like what the proper verbal response is.

At the moment, I have no plans for my future in terms of career or fur-

ther education. When I’m not in the clubhouse, I help my sister

bounce ideas for her business and try to learn as much as possible.

When I’m not procrastinating I try to learn new things. When I am

Next Page………………………………………...

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David Lin’s Speech (page 5)

procrastinating I try different methods to see if there’s an optimal way of

procrastinating based on what it is I’m procrastinating from, so far noth-

ing.

Having been depressed for such a long period of time, no matter how hard

I tried fitting in, I couldn’t get the feeling of belonging. I couldn’t feel the

feeling of trust. There was a lot of things that’s like as if my body forgot

what it’s like to feel. There are times when I get the feelings back for a

week, and I wake up, and I forget all over. I have friends who I’ve

known for years who I know are my friends but feel like strangers when

I’m with them. It has been getting better and I’ve been slowly making

connections with people at Pathways.

I don’t see myself as a success story, just a work in progress. Like every-

thing in life, it’s a continuum; you work with what you got. For me, the

hardest part hadn’t been the mental illness, it had been that at any given

point when I tried to reach out and tell people about my problems, I

seemed just normal enough and that nobody took any of it seriously.

You all look like normal people but statistics will say otherwise. I’m not

up here to out anyone, but I have come close to dying several times. Just

be aware and accepting for yourself and your loved ones.

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Treat Others as you want to Be Treated

I reinjured my arm that was healing and started to

spiral into self-pity, depression, and anxiety. I saw it and

caught it – and to stay resilient I practised connecting to

others, and feeling useful. I made a plan to come to

Pathways, pushed myself to help with the Snack Bar,

shared with staff how I was feeling and made a plan for

how to take care of my arm – which I did by re-visiting

the hospital. The next morning I felt grateful, enthusias-

tic about my life and Pathways is a big part of that.

To Pathways – Thank you!

Karin W.

===========================================

I have some issues with the way people treat other

people. They put other people down to make them-

selves feel better, but the person you put down feels real

bad. I know some people even take it worse than others.

Consider who it is. Some people are on more med’s

than others. There is the old saying treat people the way

you want to be treated. If you can’t do that you should

not come in!

Steve B.

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Pathways will start offering weekly Yoga

starting Monday, April 9th. Chris R. will

lead the yoga sessions every Monday be-

tween 4 and 5 pm. We will start with some

yoga breathing techniques, followed by

simple yoga poses and we will finish with a

short meditation. We might sometimes use

CD’s or DVD’s for the practice. No Yoga

experience necessary. Looking forward to

exercising with you!

YOGA

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Mental Health Week Film

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1.- How did you find your job? I got my job through

my psychiatrists. They referred me to be a peer support

worker.

2.-What kind of unique challenges have you faced in

your job?

I have to work with different types of clients. They are

in different situations and experiencing different levels

of illness.

3-How do you overcome these challenges? We set up

goals according to the clients’ situations, and then we

break down a big goal into smaller goals. We focus on

accomplishing small goals day by day.

4.-What kind of advice do you have for other mem-

bers with regards to finding and maintaining em-

ployment? First you have to be patient, don’t give up

on searching for jobs. There’s jobs for everyone. You

have to know your skills and strengths in order to find

the most suitable job. One way to find out what you’re

good at is to keep trying new things.

5.-What kind of support do you get from your man-

agers? My supervisor has done so much for me. She

knows me very well, so she always matches me with

most suitable clients. She has good understanding of my

capabilities.

Member Employment Profile:

LAST MONTH’S EMPLOYMENT

STATS TE Statistics SE Statistics

Members Working

22 Members Working

15

Hours Worked

565.75 Hours worked

920.50

Wages Earned

$6,599.63 Wages Earned

$10,735.28

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TEP Placements

TE Site:

Alexandra Court Janitorial

Hours: Flexible

Wage: $11.35

Start Date: Nov.2017

Member: Ray K

TE Site:

Alexandra Court

Landscaping

Hours: Flexible

Wage: $15.00

Start Date: April 2018

Member:

TE Site:

Stacey Green Catering

Hours: M-F 11:30-2pm

Wage: $10.85/hr

Start Date: Sept 2017

Member: Michael H.

TE Site:

Blundell Seafoods

Hours: M-Th /11:30-3:30pm

Wage: $11.00/hr

Start Date: Oct 2017

Members: Dennis C.

TE Site:

City Hall

Hours: T, Th / 9:00-1:00pm

Wage: $11.35/hr

Start Date: Jan 2018

Member: Andy B

TE Site:

McDonald's

Hours: Wed;12-4pm

Wage: $11.35/hr

Start Date: Nov. 2017

Member: Sam S.

TE Site:

Mass & Co.

Hours: Th/ 12-4pm

Wage: $11.35

Start Date: March 2018

Member: Mary C.

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TE Site:

Heatherbrae Office

Hours: M/W/F 6:30-8:30am

Wage: $10.85/hr

Start Date: Sep/July2017

Members: Karim & Terry

TE Site:

Heatherbrae Shop

Hours: T/F 1:30-4:30pm

Wage: $10.85/hr

Start Date: April 2018

Member: Micheal F.

TE Site:

Richmond Chinese

Community Society

Hours: M/T/W/F 6:30-

8:30am

Wage: $300/month

Start Date: Jan 2017

Member: Steve B.

TE Site:

City Centre

Hours: Tues/Thurs 9:00am

-12 noon

Wage: $10.85/hr

Start Date: July 2017

Member: Caitlin

TEP Placements Continued

TE Site:

Foodbank Kitchen Cleaning

Janitor

Hours: M/W/TH/F 1:30-3pm

Tuesday: 2—4 pm

Wage: $10.85/hr

Start Date: April 2018

Members: Blair and Jason

TE Site:

Richmond Holdings

Hours: M/W/TH/F 1:00-3:00pm

Wage: $10.85/hr

Start Date: Feb 2018

Member: Derin O

TE Site:

Mothers Choice Products

Hours: Fri 10:00–12:50pm

Wage: $11.00/hr

Start Date: Sept 2017

Member: Karim

TE Site:

Minoru Senior Centre

Hours: M-F / 11:30–3:30pm

Wage: $10.85/hr

Start Date: March 2017

Member: Dean and Matt A

TE Site:

Art Centre

Hours: M-F / 11:30-3:30pm

Wage: $10.85/hr

Start Date: Oct 2017

Member: Vince

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Supported/Independent Employment

Name Site Name Site

Chantelle Hyde Support Worker Karen Person Food Services

Matthew Abe

Doaud

Baggage Handler -

Airport Ho Mei Cha 3H Craftworks

Greeter Chris Noble Peer Support Worker

Jose Campillo Peer Support

RCFC& Recreational

Leader

Karen Whittaker

CJ D.

Preschool Assistant

Lobby Cleaner

Debbie Christian Dishwasher Darren Hayashi Health Care Aide

Richard Hooper Janitor Maria Petruic Food Services

Gina Haines Peer Support Worker Carmen

Schneebli

Demonstrator

Peter Hunsche Lot Maintenance

&Landscaping Jeannette Vo Office Assistant

Lisa Kline Reception Tiffany Ellison Lobby Cleaner

Paul Christensen Fork Lift Operator Derek Young Front Desk Attendant

Kevin Kwan Cafeteria Worker Mike

Vanderhijde

Temp worker

Glenn

Cunningham

Peer Support Worker

Trevor Drake

Labourer

Kenta H.

Nina Lacambra

Labourer

Cafeteria Worker

Julie Page

Glenn Zunicki

Office Assistant

Labourer

Nelson Bardon

Vincent Kui

Jennifer W

Labourer

Produce Worker

Busser

Wendy Willis

Scott Woodburn

Labourer

Labourer

CJ Ellison

Mary C.

Dog Walker

Receptionist

Jane Norman

Tim S.

Cafeteria Worker

Labourer

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The Good News requests your articles about the Clubhouse, your personal story, what is

happening in the mental health community, employment and education. Submit your articles

to the Membership & Business Unit.

A Guaranteed Right To a place to come To meaningful work To meaningful relationships To a place to return

Thanks to everyone who helped

get the Good News out!

New Location: 315– 8111 Granville Ave.

Richmond B.C. V6Y 1P5