Dr. Alex DiGiacomo is biking across Canada to raise awareness for child, teenage and parent mental health services and resource accessibility.
DiGiacomo’s mission is straightforward and impactful. She is biking across the country to raise money and awareness for the lack of child mental health resources and services nationwide — an issue she is familiar with because of her work with pediatric patients.
“It's just very hard to ignore, as a psychologist, how bad the access to mental health care is for kids. It's just something that I saw at the beginning of my studies and it just seems to be getting worse and worse. It's kind of like the elephant in the room,” explained DiGiacomo.
“It's this long-standing complicated systemic problem that doesn't seem like it has an easy solution … so it's easy to just avoid it.”
DiGiacomo’s Break the Cycle campaign began as an idea that came to the UBC PhD graduate during last year’s winter holidays. She was inspired after her best friends dad rode across the country in 40 days after his wife passed away from breast cancer.
“I wanted to do something different … I think there's something about taking on a big goal that anchors you and galvanizes hope,” said DiGiacomo.
The press release for her campaign states that approximately one in six youth in Canada are affected by mental health struggles and 75 per cent of those youth do not have access to the psychological care they need.
DiGiacomo says Break the Cycle stands on the foundations of three goals: to raise awareness and stimulate conversation around mental health, generate funds to support organizations working towards solutions to tackle psychoeducation accessibility and share valuable psychological knowledge to help empower families.
She explained the bike ride is meant to symbolize the uncertainty families face surrounding mental health as DiGiacomo is new to long-distance biking.
“There is a lot of uncertainty inherent to this project which mirrors the uncertainty that families face when they have a mental health struggle and they are trying to navigate the healthcare system, and just aren't equipped with the skills and knowledge to support their kids and teens through it.”
The ride is planned to take 40 active days of cycling. The 6,000 kilometre cycle began on July 22 from Kitsilano Beach.
DiGiacomo acknowledges that this is not a solution, but a tiny step.
“I really believe that you don't have to have all the answers to a problem before you start moving in the direction of a solution.”
For those interested in tracking her journey, follow DiGiacomo here.
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