Wed Oct 4 | 11:00 AM | Univ of Toronto | FREE

PANEL: Living with and supporting someone living with Schizophrenia. Personal, family, and professional perspectives.

We’re honoured to be participating once again for Mindfest at Mindfest 2017. This panel and discussion will focus on the complexity of living with schizophrenia and what it looks like from the family perspective.

SPEAKERS

  Marie Asuncion – From the lived experience perspective.
Marie Asuncion has schizophrenia but she does not let that define her. In fact, in her commitment to wellness and recovery, she is determined to achieve all the goals she had for her life before having to face the diagnosis of this disease. Marie has already done much to meet her goals: a graduate of the University of Toronto Music School, Marie received her Bachelor of Music in Performance in Harp in 2007.

She then went on to Seneca College to obtain a certificate in teaching English as a Second Language. Marie current teaches ESL, has a private music studio teaching harp students and performs her harp at various engagements around Toronto.
She was the 2007 recipient of the CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) Transforming Lives Scholarship and this past December was chosen as an Olympic Torch Runner and did her relay run in Oshawa, ON. She does volunteer work across the province, talking to young people about schizophrenia and psychosis. She is an active participant in raising awareness about the disease with organizations like the Schizophrenia Society of Ontario where she teaches a Young Adult Wellness and Recovery Group, CAMH where she works with Recovery Groups of Parents who have a child recently diagnosed with the disease and community awareness work, such as with the Fillipino Community (her parents are Fillipino immigrants to Canada). Marie has been featured in several documentaries, radio ads and newspaper articles.

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