When Rick Casey biked into Fort Frances on Monday afternoon, he was tired but determined—having nearly reached the halfway mark of his cross-Canada journey.
Casey, a 50-year-old disability services counsellor at Conestoga College in Kitchener, Ont., is biking across Canada in order to raise money and awareness for mental health issues.
The “Miles for Mental Health” ride was born out or Casey’s frustration with mental health services in Ontario during his late daughter’s three-year struggle with bipolar/schizo-affective disorder.
Kyla Anne Casey was diagnosed with the disorder shortly after her 16th birthday. She died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism on Sept. 9, 2001—at the age of 19—while a patient at a mental health unit.
Casey described those years of struggle as “a nightmare. We had a terrible time finding her services and support.”
He called mental health services “fragmented and inadequately funded,” adding “this was happening at a time when the cutbacks in health services were unprecedented.”
With his cross-Canada bike ride, Casey hopes to encourage dialogue about mental health issues, help remove some of the stigma attached to mental illness, and encourage governments to increase funding for research.
“Mental health is the orphan child of the health care system,” Casey said, because it doesn’t receive the funding that physiological disorders—like cancer and diabetes—do.
“Families shouldn’t have to go begging for services,” he stressed.
Since he kicked off his journey May 4 in Victoria, B.C., Casey has met with provincial health ministers in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and he hopes to meet with Tony Clement, Ontario’s minister of health, when he gets to Toronto.
So far, he’s raised more than $5,600 on the Canadian Mental Health Association’s national Web site, but Casey also is encouraging people to donate to their local branches of the CMHA to support local programs and services.
The United Church of Canada has been helping Casey find accommodations in the towns he travels through. When none are available, he always has managed to find people willing to open their homes to him.
“I’ve been meeting some really decent people,” he said.
Casey is scheduled to end his 8,000-km ride Aug. 21 in St. John’s, Nfld.
After he’s had some time to recuperate from the trip, Casey plans to write a book about his family’s experience during his daughter’s illness—and about his experiences biking across Canada.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
