Bringing the peer perspective to the Board of Directors

Nov 5, 2024

CMHA Ottawa’s new Vice Chair of the Board advocates for life-saving services—based on her own lived experience

A familiar face

Lynne Vail was unwell and under extreme stress. She had frequent emergency room visits and hospitalizations. During one hospitalization, she got a call from a CMHA worker. She thought it was the CMHC—the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

“I thought, ‘Does this have something to do with my mortgage?’” says Lynne. “I was very sick at the time, and I mean, I was off work.”

It’s a common mistake, but the two organizations are quite different. The Ottawa branch of the CMHA—the Canadian Mental Health Association, also known as CMHA Ottawa—provides community-based mental health case management services (among other programs) to eligible individuals in Ottawa and surrounding areas.

In this case, the call came from a worker in the branch’s Familiar Faces program, which supports individuals like Lynne who frequently present themselves to local hospital emergency departments for mental health concerns or problematic substance use issues.

Here’s how it works: After a person visits the hospital ED on multiple occasions for a mental health or substance use concern in a given period, an automatic “e-trigger” is sent to the team of system navigators in the CMHA Ottawa Familiar Faces program, who follow up with an offer of service to the individual. Partners include The Ottawa Hospital, the Queensway-Carleton Hospital, and Hôpital Montfort.

Not sure what to expect, Lynne accepted the offer of service from CMHA Ottawa. A little more than a decade later, she was elected as Vice Chair of the branch’s esteemed Board of Directors.

So how did she get there?

Life-saving services

“My first worker and I were a good fit,” says Lynne. “She helped me get back on my feet, and every time I slid back, she was always there to help me dig out of the hole—to get better and become stable.”

After almost two years of system navigation services, Lynne still needed help, so she was assigned a new case manager who could see her for a longer term. The new case manager visited her weekly and helped her identify strengths and goals and helped her meet her needs.

From the client’s perspective, Lynne says the transition was seamless; there was not a big difference between the Familiar Faces experience and that of case management.

She was dealing with some significant physical health scares at the time, and her worker was there by her side to help her navigate them. Lynne also participated in some of the additional programs offered to clients of CMHA Ottawa, such as Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), a type of talk therapy that helps people manage intense emotions.

“The DBT program saved my life,” says Lynne, who pointed out that an important element of participation in DBT is contributing to society.

In addition to volunteering with seniors—a passion of Lynne’s—she decided to explore opportunities to volunteer at CMHA Ottawa.

Lynne’s timing was good. Around then, CMHA Ottawa’s Peer Engagement Advisory Council (PEAC) was taking shape, and she would be a crucial part of its formation and embedding into the fabric of the branch.

A seat at the table

Program manager Jacalyn Ball contacted Lynne to let her know that the branch was striking up a new committee of peers—persons with lived experience—who had firsthand knowledge of how CMHA Ottawa operates from the client’s perspective, and asked if she wanted to join. She would be joining the ranks of Jacalyn herself, Cecil and Jen (peer greeters at the time) and other clients who were eager to give back and share their expertise to improve services.

And so, PEAC was formed.

PEAC’s mission was to incorporate the voice of lived experience into CMHA Ottawa’s operational practices; to improve the quality, safety and outcomes of its programs and services. With that in mind, Lynne, Jacalyn and the rest of the team deliberated on how they wanted the council to function.

It was important to them that they laid a good foundation and ensured everyone was heard while respecting the organization’s norms. The first few projects, she says, were ambitious and they didn’t get them out the door.

In retrospect, those projects were essentially team-building exercises.

And they worked.

“These projects brought PEAC closer together,” says Lynne, “and it caught on. There was good commitment from staff and management; they were engaged. They came to meetings regularly.”

In the early days, staff would hear feedback and complaints from PEAC and share the frontline perspective in return. From there, they would work together to brainstorm solutions. Jacalyn would take the ideas back to the management team and their resource groups.

“And sure enough,” says Lynne, “we saw incremental change.”

Lynne cites simple examples like making changes to some of the forms that clients fill out during intake or during their service period. PEAC would review a form used by frontline staff, offer input, explain why some things didn’t work, and then a few months later the form would come back changed.

It felt great.

“We saw concrete changes that happened because of the peer experience,” Lynne says.

The branch’s Executive Director at the time, Dr. Tim Simboli, started to attend meetings, which Lynne says gave PEAC additional credibility. Lynne appreciated Tim’s contributions. The committee got to hear from him about some of the broader context that the branch worked within—what was happening at the provincial level or city level, with partners and funders.

“That made us even stronger,” she says.

Over time, PEAC’s membership grew as more and more clients and loved ones were brought into the fold. Frontline staff and some managers became official members of PEAC as well.

As time went on and the council’s reputation grew as a source of solid advice related to quality improvement, PEAC was asked to participate in the dozens of yearly research and evaluation studies conducted by uOttawa and Carleton students along with CMHA Ottawa staff, management and clients, which Lynne was very proud of.

Another example of PEAC’s influence is related to the move into CMHA Ottawa’s current and permanent home at 311 McArthur Avenue in Vanier. As the branch leadership planned the purchase and design of its new building, the parameters and options were explained to PEAC, then the council brainstormed what they wanted to see—weighed what was important to them; pored over the architect’s designs—and their feedback was incorporated into the plans.

When the retrofitted building was unveiled, sure enough, the elements for which PEAC advocated were there. Lynne says many of the building’s accessibility features were the result of PEAC’s influence.

“The plans also incorporated the little things that made a huge difference,” she says. “We even had input on what colours of paint were used.”

Since its formation, PEAC has also been a critical part of the accreditation process, an evaluation by an independent body that undertakes an exhaustive and objective review of a given organization, its practices, its people and its operations. Early on, the council was integrated into the process in an official capacity, sharing with evaluators the clients’ point of view on the programs and services they’ve received, and how the branch operates.

“It’s a true credit to CMHA Ottawa,” says Lynne. “PEAC is treated as equal. For example, peers are always a part of the job interview process. A peer is on the interview panel of every applicant that crosses through the branch’s doors.”

Pivoting to the Board of Directors

CMHA Ottawa’s volunteer Board of Directors is responsible for establishing the organization’s strategic direction and goals, setting the policies and practices that govern its actions and for overseeing the use of the organization’s resources to achieve its goals. It’s composed of a group of individuals representing a cross-section of professions, disciplines and experiences.

Lynne noticed that a fellow individual with lived experience, Claude Lurette, sat on the Board, and was active on several committees. She was inspired to see opportunities for meaningful integration between PEAC and the Board.

“Here was Claude, who is open about his experience, contributing to the Board,” she says. “I thought, ‘Well, if they’re open to having people with lived experience on the Board, next time there’s an opening, I’ll investigate.’”

The next year, she learned that the Board was seeking new members with policy experience. Well, Lynne holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy and Public Administration from Concordia University (and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from Brock University).

Additionally, Lynne’s professional background included several positions in communications for the federal public service in the fields of climate change and food safety. With her belief in the importance of good communication, she thought she could also contribute to improving the communication of the Board of Directors and the agency overall.

She applied. It was at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic—April 2020, she estimates—and the interview was conducted by telephone.

“It was a bit bizarre,” she says, but it went well.

She was thrilled when she found out she was accepted. Her first meeting took place in the spring of that year.

“I didn’t go into it stone cold,” she says. “I had been to several Board functions as part of PEAC. I had attended retreats and strategic planning sessions. I had spoken at Board meetings about my experience with DBT. I’d gone in to talk about PEAC.”

Before she got the chance to thank Claude for leading by example and giving her the courage to apply, he had resigned from the Board. She knew she had to carry his legacy forward.

“I try to bring the client’s perspective to the Board,” says Lynne. “When we make decisions, I ask myself, ‘How would that make me feel as a client?’ ”

When presented with the opportunity to celebrate her wins, Lynne is always quick to give credit to PEAC. Her role on the Board is a big victory for PEAC, she points out.

Shortly after joining the Board, Lynne decided to resign from PEAC—she felt that after graduating from services she was no longer a current peer and able to effectively bring that voice. Her efforts would be better served on the Board of Directors.

“When you’re ill for so long, you lose courage in your abilities,” she says. “PEAC gave me the courage to see that I can work on a multidisciplinary team. I’m not just a user of resources, but I can be a contributor.

“And when you’re ill for so long,” she continues, “you start to see yourself as a sick person—you don’t see yourself as anything more. You have a narrow view of yourself. You feel outside of society. My work with PEAC—and then with the Board—helps me reintegrate into society.”

Lynne’s biggest win so far on the Board

As an active and engaged member of the Board, Lynne sits on the education committee and participates in ad hoc committees like the accreditation group. She also sat on the panel that was tasked with choosing a new CEO, which led to the hiring of Dr. Susan Farrell in 2023.

If asked to reflect on her biggest win so far as a member of the Board of Directors at CMHA Ottawa, Lynne won’t take long to answer: “The highlight so far was sitting on the panel to choose Susan,” she says. “We’re just so fortunate to have her.”

Lynne says she was nervous about finding a replacement for Dr. Simboli, whose retirement was imminent. Knowing the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead—and the need to bring in someone with the combination of a fresh perspective and a keen understanding of community-based care—it was a task that Lynne and her fellow panelists treated with gravity.

“CMHA Ottawa is really important to me,” she says. “I was stressed!”

When she saw the calibre of the people applying, however, she felt some relief, and one CV in particular leapt off the page. When they interviewed Dr. Farrell, Lynne knew that she and the committee had found the branch’s new leader.

By unanimous vote

Just four years into her tenure on the CMHA Ottawa Board of Directors, at the branch’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, Lynne was voted unanimously by her peers into the position of Vice Chair, alongside the Board’s new Chair, Peter Donnelly, a multi-faceted senior executive and fervent mental health advocate.

Lynne and Peter began their work as Vice Chair and Chair when the Board reconvened after its summer break, on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 25.

Nabanita Giri, Past Chair; Peter Donnelly, Board Chair; Lynne Vail; and John James, former Board Chair.

A vision for the future

From her new vantage point as Vice Chair, Lynne’s vision for the future is two-fold:

On the micro level, she wants to continue to facilitate integration between all levels of the organization: among clients, peers and their family members, staff, management, and the Board of Directors. Given Lynne’s experience as both a service user and at the organization’s governance table, she’s uniquely qualified to lead that charge.

“With everyone’s different perspectives,” she says, “we build a stronger organization so we can accomplish our macro vision.”

And so, at the macro level, she wants to get the word out about CMHA Ottawa’s countless successes.

“Writ large, I want the public to understand that community-based mental health care is where it’s at,” she says. “Nobody seems to know that that intervention at the community level gets the taxpayer the best bang for their buck.”

When it comes to health care, she says, it’s important to meet people where they are, and that’s what CMHA Ottawa and other community service providers do. She wants to see community-based care—an often-overlooked part of the healthcare system—get its due.

Indeed, Lynne wants to see the community sector get the funding it deserves so it can continue to do its important work. Additionally, Lynne says she really wants to help people understand what community-based care is—what it looks like.

“At almost every Board meeting, someone from the frontline staff comes in to talk about their job,” she says. “We hear these stories that are mind-blowing that they take in stride as they create these miracles.”

Lynne says with so much stigma experienced by the people we serve, and negative press about homelessness, mental illness and addictions, we must turn our focus on breaking the stigma, humanizing the most vulnerable in our community, and empowering them to get better.

“We save lives every year, if not every day,” says Lynne. “That message needs to get out.”

Lynne would know. She counts her own life as one of those saved.

Related:

The Canadian Mental Health Association, Ottawa Branch (CMHA Ottawa), is an independent, community-based non-profit organization that provides services for eligible individuals in the Ottawa area with severe and persistent mental illness and/or substance use disorder, many of whom are experiencing chronic homelessness or are vulnerably housed. CMHA Ottawa is dedicated to promoting good mental health, developing and implementing sustainable support systems and services, and encouraging public action to strengthen community mental health services and related policies and legislation.

For media inquiries:
Patrick Jodoin, Manager, Communications and Stakeholder Relations
CMHA Ottawa
613-737-7791 ext. 135 [email protected]