ANNOUNCEMENT: HEALTH CANADA HAS NOW RECOGNIZED MAY AS BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER AWARENESS MONTH
Sashbear is devoted to raising awareness of this oft-misunderstood disorder. We are pleased to announce that Health Canada has now recognized May as Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month. See here: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/calendar-health-promotion-days.html#m05
We hope that you will join us in raising awareness throughout BPD Awareness Month in May.
Canadian Landmarks Light Up in Orange for BPD
To recognize Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month, Sashbear has invited landmarks to be illuminated in orange across Canada. We hope that this moment of orange illumination brings hope for a brighter world where everyone can have access to skills, support, and a life worth living.
When you see a landmark in your city illuminated in orange, please take a photo/video, email it to info@sashbear.org or share on social media and tag @SashbearOrg and use the hashtag #SashbearLandmark. Confirmed 2024 participants include:
ALBERTA
- May 2 Reconciliation Bridge* (Calgary)
- May 10 Calgary Tower
- May 21 High Level Bridge (Edmonton)
BC
- May 9 Vancouver City Hall
- May 9 Burrard Street Bridge (Vancouver)
- May 11 Vancouver Convention Centre
- May 11 Canada Place (Vancouver)
- May 11 BC Place (Vancouver, 10-11pm)
MANITOBA
- May 11 Esplanade Riel Bridge
May 11 WINNIPEG sign
NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR
- June 14 Confederation Building (St. John’s)
ONTARIO
- May 7 Ottawa sign in Byward Market
- May 25 CN Tower (Toronto)
- May 26 Brant Street Pier (Burlington)
We hope that this moment of orange illumination brings hope for a brighter world where everyone can have access to skills, support, and a life worth living.
*Note: Reconciliation Bridge in Calgary will be lit up in yellow because orange is reserved for Indigenous lighting programs at this landmark.
RAISING AWARENESS AND REDUCING STIGMA
We hope that you will join us in raising awareness throughout BPD Awareness Month in May. Here are some things you can do:
- Join us at the Annual Sashbear Walk. This is the largest event of its kind in Canada for chronic emotion dysregulation and BPD, and every year we bring together hundreds of supporters to create a sea of orange to reduce the stigma and raise public awareness. You can even organize a neighbourhood walk in your own community! Click here for more details and to register: https://sashbear.akaraisin.com/ui/2024_Sashbear_Walk
- Learn about BPD, and share accurate and credible resources to reduce the stigma. This presentation, with Vancouver researcher Dr. Alex Chapman, is a good place to start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXot1c9pMuE
- Invite Sashbear to speak at your school, workplace, sports team or community centre. We welcome invitations to speak to parents, community members, mental health professionals, and family members to provide accurate information about emotion dysregulation, BPD, and suicidality. In the past year, we have presented at Siemens, Ford of Canada, Swim Ontario, school councils, women’s groups, and more. Email development@sashbear.org.
- Donate or fundraise for Sashbear to help us continue our work. We do not receive any direct government funding for our work providing family skills programs such as Family Connections, or for any of our other activities. We rely on your generous efforts, and even small donations make a difference! Click here: https://sashbear.org/ways-to-give/
BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER (BPD)
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious and complex mental health disorder. There is no research on the prevalence in Canada, but it is likely similar to the prevalence in the UK and US, where it affects an estimated 1-2% of the general population, approximately 22% of people in inpatient psychiatric settings, and as high as 43% of adolescents in inpatient settings (Ellison et al., 2018).
Looking further than prevalence, the enormous impact of BPD becomes more obvious when you consider that 84% of people with BPD have engaged in some kind of self-injurious or suicidal behaviour (Soloff et al., 2002), and 10% of people with BPD die by suicide (Paris & Zweig-Frank, 2001).
BPD is rooted in chronic emotion dysregulation – ongoing difficulties with regulating emotion – and as a result, people with BPD are emotionally sensitive and reactive, and this may lead to challenges in their relationships as well. It is important to be aware that people with BPD experience extreme emotional pain, and the behaviours that may be challenging to others are often a result of trying to cope with the emotional pain they are living with.
In spite of the historical stigma surrounding personality disorders, we now know that most people with BPD can get better, especially when appropriate, evidence-based treatment is available to them. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) and mentalization-based therapy (MBT) are two well-researched treatments that are increasingly available in Canada.
Learn more here: https://sashbear.org/about-bpd/