Family of Catherine Curtis to raise money for mental health programming
A GoFundMe page has been set up in Curtis’s name to create mental health program for older adults
The family of Catherine Curtis is setting up a GoFundMe page in order to raise funds for mental health. Funds will help create programming for older adults who may be experiencing mental health issues.
"Out of all of this pain, suffering, grieving we are going through, a lot of it doesn't make sense to us. The more hope that we can get out of this, the more positivity we can get out of this, the better," said Janelle DePeazer, Curtis's daughter.
Curtis, 60, left the Grace Hospital on an approved, but unaccompanied walk on April 25 and never came back. Curtis had been admitted earlier that month for mental health issues.
A massive search followed, with searchers scouring the area for almost 10 days. Her body was discovered on May 4 in Sturgeon Creek, near Grace Hospital.
The story generated an outpouring of support for the family and put mental health issues under the spotlight.
"We know it's not a unique situation what my mom was going through and that one in four people, and in particular older adults, are facing mental health issues," said DePeazer.
DePeazer says she has contacted the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba to help create a program for older adults who are having trouble transitioning into retirement.
"She [Curtis] had just retired and I think that was a particularly hard transition for her," said DePeazer.
"[MDAM] do not currently have a program directed toward older adults, so we felt equally excited to address this gap," she said.
What the program will look like has not yet been decided but DePeazer and her brothers wanted to do something to help others who are going through what their mother went through.
"We see this program as something that reflects her interests but also building upon some of the things we felt could have helped her," said DePeazer.
The GoFundMe campaign has set a goal of $5,000 but DePeazer says the family plans to do whatever they can to support the program.
She says it was in her mother's nature to be giving and she would want to be part of something like this.
"She would be very happy about this. She was a very giving, very selfless person...anytime that she could, she would always want to be giving to others or to a cause."