Trigger warning: suicide | Stacy-Ann will take us through her journey of dealing with anxiety and depression. She will discuss the shame and lack of understanding around mental health in the black community. She will also discuss the pressures she felt from herself and society, which inevitably led her into a severe depression and thoughts of taking her own life.
More About Stacy
Stacy-Ann Buchanan's impact, entrepreneurial work ethic and achievements within the last six years led her to being listed as one of the 100 Black Women to Watch in Canada, one of the 150 Black Women Making Canada Better, one of the 150 Leading Canadians for Mental Health and one of the 30 women (internationally) to make the Highly Fabulous Women's Power List for 2018. She was also awarded the Young Fem Leader award and the Entrepreneur of the year award.
Stacy-Ann made Canadian history when her award winning documentary, The Blind Stigma debuted as the first documentary produced in Canada that takes a look at how mental health is perceived in the Black Community. Her most recent accolades includes accomplishing her first TEDx Talk and being recognized for her Entrepreneurial Spirit and an Inspiration of Change at the 2019 International Women's Day award ceremony held at the Jamaican Canadian Centre.
Adding to her credentials is her role as co-donor of The Buchanan Scholarship - this award is given to a student entering their first year of post-secondary education in the Liberal Arts or the Fine Arts program and is based on a demonstrated financial need and having an excellent academic record. Ms. Buchanan is a motivational leader and mental health advocate who boldly shares her journey towards success while inspiring others to turn their "Pain into Power" and to "Make their Passion their Paycheck."
About Mary-Lyn Kieffer
Mary-Lyn Kieffer is a mental health advocate and Director of Made of Millions Foundation, Canada. She oversees all event production, digital programming, advocacy and fundraising initiatives taking place in Canada. Prior to her advocacy work, she was a marketing and business development professional in both the financial and legal industries, as well as an event producer, producing educational events for executives from Fortune 500 companies. Mary-Lyn holds a Master's Degree and Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Economics and Finance.
In 2018 she left the corporate world after experiencing severe symptoms of OCD. Her personal experience opened her eyes to the lack of accessible mental health care, and drove her to seek out advocacy initiatives that allowed her to give back to the community. In addition to her work at Made of Millions, Mary-Lyn is an active member of the Toronto OCD community. In 2018, she completed the Peer Support Training program at Mood Disorders Association of Ontario. Using her knowledge to help others, she co-facilitates the Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous Support Group, as well as an OCD peer support group held at Sunnybrook Hospital.
About Ask the Advocates
Millions and millions of people around the world live with mental illness, but their stories are not all the same. They come from different places, cultures, communities and countries. They like different things, have different kinds of friends, and cope with their symptoms in different ways. When talking about mental health, it's important that we highlight these differences and explore how they shape our experiences. Mental health narratives should be as diverse and unique as we are.
Ask the Advocates is an ongoing Q&A series with outspoken mental health sufferers from around the world. Guests will open up about their experiences living with a wide range of conditions and symptoms, and answer your questions about pain, growth, healing, treatment and more. Before each episode, spend some time learning about the scheduled guest and come prepared with questions that are relevant to what they've been through.
