Ginny and Kerry Dennehy responded to the suicide of their son, Kelty, in 2001 by embarking on a mission to prevent suicide-related depression in young people.

The Dennehys put their careers aside to help others by founding the Kelty Patrick Dennehy Foundation which has raised more than $7 million to date. The first centre at BC Children’s Hospital is an innovative one-stop shop for resources and relief.

The new approach to accessing help includes telepsychiatry and a unique website where users can chat with others in a safe, anonymous and supported environment. Other centres both here and abroad can benefit from an ‘off the shelf’ solution. A second centre has just opened at the new mental health building (The Hope Centre) at Lions Gate Hospital and a third is going to be established at VGH, with a Kelty Online Therapy Program already developed and open to precede that building.

Facilitating dialogue between community groups to help end the stigma of mental illness is at the core of Kerry and Ginny’s work. School programs to combat the silence give hope that talking openly about depression and anxiety will be just as mainstream as talking about drinking and driving.

In 2013, Ginny and Kerry Dennehy cycled across Canada, delivering 38 presentations and raising more than $1.2 million to raise depression awareness.