Speak Out: Jujube’s Art
We’re speaking out for Mental Illness Awareness Week to raise awareness of suicide prevention.
The Day is an opportunity for Coast Mental Health (CMH) to talk about the need for community-based support services to assist people in their daily lives. This ensures people living in our communities receive ongoing supports and connections that are important to their sustained recovery.
We’re focused on providing wraparound support services to ensure people in need are never forgotten. When a member suffers a relapse CMH staff are there ready to catch them.
Janice “Jujube” Jacinto is a member artist at Coast Mental Health. She’s both a visual and spoken word artist. Jujube began to struggle with mental illness in her early 20s, causing a manic state. At the time, her doctor expressed she would never live a normal life again.
Today, Jujube is thriving as an artist.
“I carry my life with me, but in all that darkness, art is an undeniable force. My artwork is playful, inclusive, and childlike. I lost a lot of my childhood, but I express that side of me through my art.”
Support individuals living with mental illness by making a donation today.
More of Jujube:
Janice “Jujube” Jacinto artwork is profiled in Coast Mental Health’s Art Project Roadshow. See Jujubes painting at the North Vancouver City Library for the month of October.
Contentment at Coast Mental Health
Jujube insists that being part of the CMH community saved her live. She shares her sense of contentment that she is feeling for the first time in her life, and spoke especially of her experiences with our staff at Seymour Place, a CMH owned and operated building where she lives. Jujube has a very strong feeling that unlike the doctor she visited in her early 20s, CMH staff will never give up on her. They are kind and understanding. She also mentioned that doing recovery exercises with staff every three months has had a positive effect on her life, as she now has an openness towards people that she never felt before.
“It’s important to have the courage to light another person’s light and to keep being inspired. I always thought I had a broken brain but I don’t – art is a healing tool. I had a hard time making friendships because of my trauma, but I found them through art and expressing creatively. Thank you to the welcoming support of CMH’s Resource Centre!”
