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What if the mental health symptoms we face are signals that can help us see and solve actual causes?
Nationally, about 1 in 5 (or over seven million) people in Canada experience a mental illness or significant mental health issue annually. By age 40, about half of the Canadian population will have or have had a mental illness. The Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA), which includes Salt Spring Island, consistently reports higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders than the rest of British Columbia. Data shows that approximately 1 in 4 VIHA residents report dealing with depression or anxiety.
Dr. Joanna Cheek sees mental health struggles as symptoms of the imbalances in our wider systems, and works to decrease the stigma that is too often misplaced on the individuals who suffer rather than the ailing society around them. In addition to caring for individuals, she hopes to heal the harmful dynamics of domination, division, and indifference within our collective systems, teaching that collective-care is self-care.
Joanna Cheek, M.D., is a Canadian psychiatrist, award-winning professor at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Medicine, speaker, researcher, group facilitator, meditation teacher, psychotherapist trained in numerous styles of therapy, journalist, and mom. She co-founded Mind Space (https://mind-space.ca), a collective of physicians offering mental health groups to tens of thousands of participants, to improve access to publicly funded mental health services in BC. Her writing has been featured in the Toronto Star, CBC, NeoLife, L.A. Times, Walrus, and Maclean’s, among others. Her recent book, It's Not You, It's the World: A Mental Health Survival Guide for Us All (HarperCollins Canada, 2026) is a go-to guide for anyone feeling depressed, anxious, enraged, numb, or sick from adapting to a world on fire.
Whether or not you or someone you know is struggling with mental health symptoms, this special Salt Spring Forum event will provide helpful information and tools—so we can come together to respond to the shared problems that we face.