Pitch: Nationally-known Mental Health speaker and leader, Stephane Grenier releases his auto-biographical book, which covers his time during the war and genocide in Rwanda, living and working with undiagnosed PTSD and his extraordinary professional reaction: changing the military mental health culture.
His work now is tackling the same for all Canadians and is an in-demand public speaker.
#AfterTheWarBook #PTSD #MentalHealth
BOOK RELEASE:
After The War, Surviving PTSD and Changing Mental Health Culture
Published by University of Regina Press, February 17, 2018 (In-stores NOW).
- Available for interviews
- In-studio: Toronto & Ottawa.
ABSTRACT: After serving in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and civil war, Lieutenant Colonel Stéphane Grenier returned to Canada haunted by his experiences. Facing post-traumatic stress disorder and an archaic establishment, he spent ten years confronting–and changing–the military mental health system from within.
Coining the term “Operational Stress Injury” to allow the military to see mental injury in the same light as a physical wound, Grenier founded the Operational Stress Injury Social Support program that provides help for mentally injured soldiers and veterans.
Since retiring from the military in 2012, his ground-breaking approach has been adopted by civilian society. Working with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, he founded Mental Health Innovations, which delivers Grenier’s direct “walk the talk” method to improve mental well being in government and business.
BIOGRAPHY: Stéphane Grenier is a nationally known mental health innovator, advocate, speaker and entrepreneur. He retired from the Canadian military as a Lieutenant Colonel after serving 29 years.
He participated in several overseas missions, most notably nine months in Rwanda in 1994/95, and six months in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2007.
Faced with his own undiagnosed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) upon return from Rwanda, he took a personal interest in the way the Canadian Forces was dealing with mental health issues. In 2001, he coined the term Operational Stress Injury (OSI) and conceived, developed, implemented and managed a government-based national Peer Support program for the Canadian military.
In the spring of 2012, he retired from the military and created Mental Health Innovations (MHI) a social enterprise dedicated to developing non-clinical mental health interventions as a complement to traditional clinical care. More recently, in 2016 he launched a second company to implement and deliver peer support services within in-patient mental health units at the provincial health care system level.
CONTACT:
Melissa Shirley
URP Publicist
647-389 – 9510
melissa.shirley@uregina.ca
Jon O’Connor
Mental Health Innovations
1-905-924-1550
j.oconnor@mhic-cism.com
Publisher: AfterTheWarBook.com
Indigo: Link
Amazon: Link
MEDIA:
CTV Toronto: February 20, 2018
CHCH Hamilton: February 21, 2018
Quill & Quire: Book Review, Feb 2018
Sirius XM: February 26, 2018
Global Morning: February 26, 2018
Halton Cogeco: February 27, 2018
TVO “The Agenda”: March 5, 2018
Publishers Weekly: March 2018