Stigma Enigma Committee

Stigma Enigma is a group of volunteers dedicated to increasing awareness and need of community involvement in dealing with mental illness All proceeds from our fundraising efforts go directly to Maryvale Adolescent and Family Services in Windsor-Essex. This assists Maryvale in hiring counsellors to help reduce their waiting list so that more youth can receive help.

Committee Members:

Dr. Patrick Smith, Pete Cusumano, Jenna Smith, Julie Davis, Darlene Kennedy, Mary Bondy, Christine Prymack, Jane Meriano, Shannon Fuhr, Chuck Smith, Karen Fosten, Randy Semeniuk, Nancy Campana, Darlene Mascaro, Elenore Zanette, Shelley Conrad, Stacey Ditchfield, Alexander Colak, Josh Armstrong, Adam McClounie, Kim Novak and Maggie Chaker.

Stigma Enigma Founder and Chair

Dr. Patrick X Smith

Dr. Smith has been a Windsor family physician since 1987. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1983. He was a part-time emergency room physician at Windsor Regional, Collingwood General and Leamington General for seventeen years. He also worked for Windsor Regional Cancer Centre before starting his family practice.

Dr. Patrick X. Smith has been awarded the 2023 Carol Mueller Mental Health Champion award through the CMHA Wake Up, Speak Up event. Carol Mueller was born and educated in Windsor. She was the Executive Director of Alive! Canada and worked tirelessly to provide education about suicide prevention.

Dr. Smith and his family after experiencing some mental health tragedies, decided to create the Stigma Enigma Committee to increase awareness and community involvement in dealing with mental illness. This committee of volunteers provides mental health education and outreach to youth. Their mission is to reduce the stigma that inhibits many with mental health issues from seeking help; bring more mental health professionals to Windsor-Essex through the Sophie Smith Scholarship (awarded to a local doctor entering psychiatry); and to critically examine the overall funding of our mental healthcare system and work to develop and implement strategies for much needed future changes.

How the Stigma Enigma events started:

A fund-raising dinner and silent auction on Saturday, November 8, 2014 at the Walkerville Brewery in Windsor Ontario included Aisha Alfa – comedian and motivational speaker, Ted Ball – health policy consultant, and from London Jordan Smith. Two of Jordan’s siblings – Sophie and Geoff, athletic, intelligent, beautiful young people from an excellent family, suffered from mental illness and as a result took their own lives.

A basketball banquet was held November 28 at the Caboto Club for some of the best high school basketball teams throughout the province in partnership with the annual Freeds tournament held at the brand new St. Clair College Athletic Facility. This banquet featured speaker Eric Hippie. Eric was an outstanding quarterback for the NFL Detroit Lions whose son committed suicide at the age of fifteen. Eric speaks to young people throughout the country about mental illness and suicide prevention. He is affiliated with the University Of Michigan Depression Centre. The intent is to make the tournament a lifelong memory that will have tremendous positive impact on their futures as leaders. The purpose was to promote mental health awareness and provide education to our youth.

We are committed to doing anything possible to reduce young peoples’ risk of developing a mental health problem or illness, or of becoming so desperate as to contemplate suicide. We strive to defeat the stigma that has bigoted peoples’ attitudes and fed the discrimination that many have endured. This is in the hope that people will feel comfortable talking about mental illness like any other disease. The slogan that we want spread and openly discussed by players and their families is “STIGMA – ENIGMA”.