One in four Canadians are affected by mental health challenges, and family members are on the front lines in providing support for their loved ones. There is inadequate recognition and support for family members. Too often, they end up isolated and hopeless, and often struggle with their own mental health, essentially becoming “collateral casualties” as they try to help their loved ones.
The Sashbear Foundation is a charity recognized as a leading voice for Canadian families impacted by emotion dysregulation, suicidality, and related mental health challenges. Sashbear trains and empowers family members to share life-transforming skills, building community and hope through evidence-based family programs, advocacy, and education.
Sashbear is working towards a Canada where all families have:
- access to affordable and timely skills and support,
- opportunities to regain balance in their lives,
- strategies and skills to provide effective support to their struggling loved ones
- confidence to speak out about families’ experiences and advocate for their needs.
With a national presence, Sashbear is bringing recognition to the reality that families play an integral role in transforming mental health services to be more effective and tailored to the specific needs of each individual.
Our vision is:
A stigma free world where life coping skills, support and hope are available and accessible to anyone in need.
Our mission is:
To lead a mental health reform and create a validating environment for everyone by:
- Eliminating the stigma around emotion dysregulation and suicide
- Promoting early prevention and recognition, and access to timely and affordable intervention and treatment for individuals with emotion dysregulation
- Disseminating effective life coping and interrelationship skills to enhance quality of life
- Informing, empowering, and mobilizing families and communities for change
We bring these values to our work:
Our mission is to lead a mental health reform by promoting awareness of the need for early prevention, recognition, timely intervention, and access to affordable treatment for individuals with borderline personality disorder or emotional dysregulation. Through our efforts, we will bring positive changes to create a more validating environment for everyone by:
- Compassion
- Dedication
- Evidence-based practice
- Inclusion
“I am so very grateful and commend your wonderful work, which is vitally important for so many people out there who are struggling, suffering and/or simply trying to cope with loved ones who have BPD.“