Jason Balgopal, started a mental-health program in his community in 2015 after he suffered depression and attempted suicide.Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail
The organizers: Jason and Leigh Balgopal
The cause: Launching Mental Wellness Peer Support Groups
Toronto lawyer Jason Balgopal spent a decade suffering from depression that was so severe he attempted suicide.
Mr. Balgopal considers himself fortunate because he was able to receive treatment and a lot of support. “I got help from a psychiatrist and a therapist and medication and read lots of books,” he said from his home in Toronto.
But he’d been leaning heavily on his family and he didn’t have contact with people who faced similar experiences. So in 2015, he started gathering like-minded people together.
He called it the Mental Wellness Peer Support Group and organized monthly meetings in a local community centre. The idea proved so popular that groups quickly formed across the city and there are now dozens of meetings a month.
Each session is one-hour long and led by members who have received mental-health training. “Everybody has an opportunity to get off their chest what’s bothering them, but there’s no obligation to speak. Simply being there is enough,” he said.
Members also offer each other feedback, but not by telling others what to do. “Our feedback is just empathy, or a technique that worked for us personally when I was in your shoes,” he said.
The meetings, which are free and typically involve around seven people, moved online at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which vastly expanded availability of the service. “Now, we offer support to people anywhere in the world, anywhere in Canada, almost every night of the week,” said Mr. Balgopal.
In 2023, Mr. Balgopal and his wife, Leigh, incorporated the organization as a non-profit and they rely almost entirely on donations. The money raised helps the group offer members five free professional therapy sessions, and a discount on future sessions.
Mental Wellness is now helping around 2,500 people and the couple hope to expand it to reach more young people.
Mr. Balgopal, 54, hasn’t seen his psychiatrist in years. But he knows that depression never completely goes away. “It’s something that you’ve got to manage, and it’s something that the groups, for me, actually help out quite a lot.”