Rhyme and Reason: An Interactive Approach to Mental Health Education

Rhyme & Reason conveys the internal pain and struggle of those dealing with mental illness, homelessness, addiction, and dementia. Through non-fiction, narrative verse, the content personifies the actual symptom profiles of some of the most common and severe mental health conditions. Black and white line art drawings provide a visual context for the lived experience of each diagnosis. The interpretive artwork invites the reader to color and reflect through the medium of colored pencils. Notes & Doodles pages follow each rhyme, prompting the reader to note critical points and journal their thoughts and feelings. Finally, a comprehensive resource page sums up the primary objective of this unique publication.


This collection of poems is to be used as a guide for people who may be experiencing mental health challenges and those who love them. Art and verse combine to provide a simplistic, interactive approach to early symptom recognition and mental health awareness. Mental illness is plagued by a stigma that can force people with life-threatening symptoms to go underground. Through education, we can demystify the stigma, point the way to accessing services, and save lives.

Colleen Wedd is a practising, Registered Psychiatric Nurse. She has been working in the field of mental health for close to twenty-five years. Through the Early Psychosis Intervention Program, Colleen has worked with young adults who have been newly diagnosed with a psychotic illness. Working on downtown Vancouver's East Side, she has witnessed the devastation of chronic mental illness and substance misuse. Throughout her career, Colleen has learned mental illness shows no bias. It crosses all socioeconomic borders and affects people of all colors, cultures, classes, and races. Colleen's eighty-seven-year-old mother recently passed from complications related to vascular dementia.

Colleen has three adult children and six grandchildren. She lives in Mission British Columbia with her horse Rebel, a gelded mustang from the Penticton Indigenous Peoples feral herd.