Episode 26: Making Mental Health a Priority in Real Estate

Dr. Raj Bhatla is Psychiatrist-in-Chief at The Royal Mental Health Centre in Ottawa, one of Canada’s foremost mental health care, teaching, and research hospitals.

Ron Antalek is a REALTOR® in Maple Ridge, British Columbia with more than 30 years’ experience, a mental health advocate, and the recipient of the Canadian REALTORS Care® Award 2020.

On Episode 26, Dr. Bhatla and Ron join REAL TIME in support of Mental Health Week 2022.

Aligning with this year’s theme of empathy, they explore various topics surrounding mental health including destigmatization, mental health in the workplace, the vulnerability of REALTORS®, and how to support one another through compassion and understanding.

Transcript

Erin Davis: Welcome to REAL TIME, the podcast for and about REALTORS®. My name is Erin Davis, and I am so glad to be able to share this timely and valuable, and above all, interesting conversation with you today. REAL TIME is a presentation of the Canadian Real Estate Association. The podcast for and about Canadian REALTORS®, brought to you by the Canadian Real Estate Association, one of this country's largest, single industry associations.

Now meet our guests, Dr. Raj Bhatla is Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Chief of Staff of the Royal Ottawa Healthcare Group. He did his undergraduate work at Harvard University and his medical degree at McGill University. He joined the Royal, one of Canada's foremost, mental healthcare teaching and research hospitals in 1992.

Ron Antalek is a second-generation REALTOR® with more than 30 years experience. He's also a philanthropist, committed volunteer and mental health advocate in his community of Maple Ridge, British Columbia. In 2020, Ron was the recipient of the Canadian REALTORS Care® Award.

On this Episode 26, Dr. Bhatla and Ron join REAL TIME in support of mental health week 2022, in a demanding profession like real estate. Taking the time to talk about our mental health is essential to fostering a vibrant driving industry, both today and tomorrow. Aligning with this year's theme of Empathy, we'll explore various topics surrounding mental health, including awareness, de-stigmatization, and how to support one another through compassion and understanding.

Thank you both so much for joining us for such an important discussion today. We're going to start with some quick introductions, and I know that I can't possibly do both of you justice. Tell us about yourselves and why the topic of mental health is important to you. We'll begin please with Dr. Bhatla.

Raj Bhatla: Oh, absolutely. Thanks for having us. Mental health is crucial importance to society in general, but for me personally. I've been working now in mental health as a psychiatrist for the past 30 years, working in a variety of settings, in the hospital, inpatient work, outpatient work, community work, and starting to see how much it impacts people's lives, always has, but increasingly I think we're aware of that. Personally, I'm aware of that even more as I've continued my practice for so long that it's just a crucial importance to me.

Erin: You've been with the Royal since 1992?

Raj: Yes, I have. In 1992, I started the Royal and I've always been also interested from a mental health point of view in the cultural aspects of mental health. I was actually born in India and raised in Canada, a lot of time in the US, and it's been really interesting to see how mental health and its perception and stigma has evolved in different cultures and societies, and it's really, really nice to see how much it's evolved in a positive direction in Canada and the US in particular, and around the world.

Erin: Yes. We will be delving into that, especially right here at home. Ron, its such a pleasure to have you with us today. Tell us a bit about yourself and why this mental health topic means so much to you.

Ron Antalek: Thank you, Erin. I was born and raised in Maple Ridge, BC. My father, when I was a child was working at Essondale, which is now the Riverview Hospital, as a psychiatric nurse, and my mom was a registered nurse working at St. Mary's and then later to Ridge Meadows Hospital. As a young child, this was in our home. It was a passion of my mom and my dad. It influenced me, and growing up, I graduated from Simon Fraser University as a teacher. I went into the teaching profession. I found the academic portion very simple and engaging with children, but the mental health aspect was the part that I felt needed so much help. It just motivated me to this day to identify mental health as a passion to make a difference for me.

Erin: I find it fascinating that with your father, as a psych nurse at Essondale, that you got to see what it looked like from the inside, and you've likened it to a castle.

Ron: Well, as a child, I remember in the Montreal Olympics my excitement was going into the kitchen at Essondale to see the cooks because they had little plastic men that were put in the Kellogg's cornflake boxes. Walking through, there was bars in the windows, there was patients in straight jackets. They used electric therapy. It was really more of a jail setting than it was a hospital.

Erin: It seems like this has informed you as you've moved forward, and we're looking forward to hearing about that. Conversations about mental health, just like we are having right now, they seem to have become more common over the last few years. If you stop and look at it, you wonder why the heightened awareness. Dr. Bhatla, your take on this?

Raj: Interesting. It's a fascinating phenomena and a very welcome one. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's happened. However, it does appear that it's being taken on more in the public and by corporations and the sense that you can't do well in terms of your wellbeing by solely focusing on your physical health. We've seen an evolution. I know the Ottawa situation better than most, but where sports celebrities, in Ottawa's case, Daniel Alfredsson, one of our outstanding captains, took up the cause and then other high profile individuals, we had Margaret Trudeau, who came forth and talked about her journey when it comes to mental health.

Then we're also starting to see things like mental health-related research taking the fore. People are starting to understand the impact that mental health has on our overall wellbeing. All of those things put together as well as more media awareness in terms of how to report on it better and educating the public, have all contributed to a real understanding of its importance, and of course the pandemic has really added to that as well.

Erin: How so?

Raj: The pandemic, I think, has done a few things. We've been fascinated by the incredible ability to carry on the functioning of society through just incredible technology, the Zoom platforms, other video platforms, telephone usage, and healthcare in general has been able to carry on as multiple functions of society have been based on our technology. However, the other thing that the pandemic has revealed is that people really need people. We are social creatures, and if we've ever forgotten that, the pandemic has brought that back to the fore. The loneliness that some populations have felt, and all of us have felt a little bit disconnected, not having that personal face-to-face contact, including just physical contact, the handshakes, the hugs, all of that being so crucial.

Erin: You mentioned the technological advances, and certainly we are living proof of that even us and how we speak. Has that also helped to break down barriers like people who might not have gone into the hospital or gone into your office to sit and have a face-to-face with you, Dr. Bhatla, who actually feel more at home, more comfortable wrapped in their own blanket with a cat on their lap or a puppy at their feet and having a real heart-to-heart with you. Has that helped you in any way?

Raj: I think it has helped, especially when it comes to some populations that are more challenged to reach out for help. Because traditionally, in many aspects of mental health, we have people coming to us in a variety of settings in the community, in hospitals, doctors' offices, other types of settings. However, with the technology, we can actually reach out into people's homes. You can connect with a service provider, a professional, through video links of various platforms. It's allowed access to groups that may not have had it before, especially if you live more remotely in Canada. We're a vast country, so many of our population that would have to drive or spend a lot of time traveling to see someone, can now get some of that service right in the home. That part has been very welcome, I would say.

Erin: Service and home, of course, a perfect descriptor of you, Ron and part of what you do. You've mentioned that we likely wouldn't even be having this discussion that we're having with you and Dr. Bhatla, even 10 years ago. How have you personally seen the stigmas surrounding mental health evolve, Ron?

Ron: Well, I celebrate the amazing improvements that I see a couple measuring sticks. I've been on the Ridge Meadows Hospital Foundation for 13 years. My son's graduating this year, grade 12 in high school — so even in that decade, significant difference in the school system, the university's real estate, even in the CFL, the NHL. I celebrate Carey Price coming back to playing between the posts and April. It's amazing to see player assistance program in the