Myles Mattila
Myles Mattila, born in Quesnel, BC, is the spokesperson and project developer for MindRight which he founded in 2016. Myles is a Student, a mental health advocate, Jr Hockey player and he has recently added the Peer to Peer Support Program (P2P) to his extensive list of mental health initiatives.
Myles read about the story of the late Vancouver Canuck player Rick Rypien, who lost his life to mental illness. Rick’s close friend, Kevin Bieska, continues to raise mental illness awareness and carries on Rick’s legacy via the website mindcheck.ca. Myles thought of his own friend who once struggled with mental health, and he decided to take initiative. His efforts aim to end the stigma surrounding mental illness and so that others can find help.
Myles has been recognized throughout the province of BC for his work on mental health awareness. He is the provincial youth representative for mindcheck.ca, and he also sits on the steering committee for the Prince George Local Action Team for Child and Youth Mental Health and Substance Use. Myles aspires to reach out to as many people as possible to ensure they know where to find resources and support.
The primary goal of P2P is to create a resource platform to help provide support and do even more for youth mental health. This initiative focuses on raising initial awareness, sourcing and coordinating an additional resource team, and helping youth access existing support associations within the community. Currently, we use hockey as one example and a common place where we have access to a large number of ‘players’ (i.e. like-minded youth) as we continually try to demonstrate that it is ‘ok’ to ask for help. We believe that, when dealing with mental health challenges, early intervention is crucial and this can be accomplished with P2P.