Historical Context of their Growing Up

Clem Martini was born in 1956. During that time some notable events were happening in and around Calgary. In 1964 Clem’s hometown was amalgamated into Calgary. In 1973 Calgary’s economy boomed due to the Arab Oil Embargo. Calgary also received its own hockey team in 1980 with the Calgary Flames. Calgary even hosted the 1988 Winter Olympics. In regards to support of mental health, in 2019 mental health services only receive 7% of the federal healthcare budget. Additionally, only half of Canadians receive adequate care during a depressive episode, one third of people over the age of 15 do not have their needs met, 75% of children do not have access to specialized services, 18% of hospitalizations were do to some kind of mental disorder and wait times are typically six months to a year for counselling and therapy. (Mental Illness and Addiction: Facts and Statistics, n.d.)  In the 1960’s when Martini grew up governments were just starting to understand mental health. In the 1970’s community programs existed for people that were mentally ill to slowly integrate themselves into communities. In the 1980’s is when mental health institutions began opening up. According to Stats Canada ~200,000 people suffered from mental illness each year from 1984 - 1993.

- Ryan Sneyd