January 2020
www.ninet.med.ubc.ca
PDF version of this newsletter can be found here
The NINET-IMH Clinic and Laboratory researches clinical applications of Non-Invasive Neurostimulation Therapies to improve the health of those suffering from a variety of mental illness.
NOTE FROM THE PAC MEMBERS
Dear reader,
This monthly newsletter is brought to you by NINET’s Public Advisory Committee (PAC) members. We meet once a month to discuss improvements within the clinic, and our goal is to spread the word and educate the public about mental health, rTMS, and its usage in treating psychiatric disorders.
We hope that this newsletter serves the purpose of enlightening and keeping you updated with news within the NINET-IMH Clinic & Laboratory. If you would like to join the NINET-IMH PAC, please feel free to email us at ninet.lab@ubc.ca or let Rose or Ria know.
Sincerely,
NINET-IMH Public Advisory Committee (PAC) Members
NINET-IMH PAC TERMS OF REFERENCES
Over the last year, the NINET-IMH PAC members have worked together to create a terms of references for the committee, that will help inform the public as well as the members what to be expected of the PAC. We hope that this document will answer some of the questions regarding the activity and responsibilities of PAC! If anyone is interested in learning more about PAC, please find the link to the full terms of references at ninet.med.ubc.ca/updates. We would love to hear feedback! Feel free to contact us at ninet.lab@ubc.ca or let Rose or Ria know.
Purpose of the PAC
The objective of PAC is to provide a vehicle to further meaningful patient engagement and enable NINET and the NINET-IMH Clinic to work collaboratively with patients. The PAC members will collaborate in achieving the goal of public engagement and representing community interests by providing input, perspective, specific expertise, and recommendations. The responsibility for the management of the NINET-IMH Clinic ultimately rests with the principal investigator of the lab/clinic, Dr. Vila-Rodriguez.
– An excerpt from the terms of references
NEW FACES IN THE NINET CLINIC
The NINET Lab is pleased to welcome many new members in the new year! First, we welcome to the NINET counsellor Susana F, who will be available for counselling sessions to patients at NINET (more details on how to book an appointment down below). Next, we have three new 8×5 study volunteers Kathy B, Vida L, and Sara P, who will help administer the study procedures. Lastly, a psychiatry resident Krista S. Krista will be holding IA’s and help with ratings and follow up’s. Welcome all!
THE THINGS THAT MATTER
By Meghan Chen
Let’s just get this out of the way first: everyone’s story is different, and I’m not going to even pretend to know what it feels like to have lived yours. If you told me your story, I couldn’t tell you that I understood – because I really don’t, and never truly will as long as I keep seeing the world through my own two eyes. What I do understand, though, is that your story matters. Even if it feels routine, or small, or punctuated by tears. It matters, because you are here for another day, and that matters.
It matters that you picked your head up off the pillow today. It matters that you got up, brushed your teeth, had a piece of toast or a glass of milk. It matters that you found your way to this website and are reading this right now. All those things are victories, small wins against the voice that told you that you couldn’t do any of those things today. They might be little things, but they matter a whole lot.
And many little things that matter add up. They become a big thing that matters very much: progress. Progress doesn’t have to look like stopping your medications tomorrow or going to the gym three times a week. It can look like calling a friend when all you want to do is lock yourself in your room. It can look like walking the dog, or just playing with the dog. It can look like opening the blinds, even just a crack, and letting the sunlight pour in. If the windows were boarded up yesterday, that’s not just a little thing – that’s big progress. Big progress, small progress, it all matters.
So today, maybe try paying attention to your little victories, to all these little things that matter so much. Maybe write them down and make a list, so that the little things that matter become a bigger thing that matters even more. Try reading that list, and you just might realize how much it matters that you did all of those things when just the day before, you didn’t think you could do any of them. Yesterday, you might have felt as if nothing mattered. But every little step, every little thing that matters, is a step towards believing that you matter. And you know what? That matters.
*If you’re interested in learning more about the impact that activity monitoring can have on depression, this study suggests that self-monitoring of activity has been correlated with improvements in mood; and this video by the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy discusses how keeping an activity log can help with tracking progress between treatment sessions.