Written by Curtis Harman

Jesica Neufeld attended a presentation that the Schizophrenia Society's Partnership Program did for National Schizophrenia and Psychosis Awareness Day in May of 2013. The local media was there and interviewed audience members for the evening news. Jesica shared that she loved hearing these stories of recovery and wanted to join the team to share her story of recovery from schizophrenia. She said she could identify with the women and what they went through with their mental illnesses.

In September of 2013, Jesica gave her first presentation at the Dube Centre for Mental Health at the Royal University Hospital. She gave her first presentation in a school at her own high school at Aden Bowman Collegiate in October of 2013.

Over her many years in the program, Jesica gave nearly 250 presentations. She was always willing to go out there and share her story of recovery. Jesica regularly helped set up and clean up at Partnership Program team meetings. She had a positive and helpful attitude.

She gave her last presentation on September 23rd, 2022 at Station 20 West in Saskatoon to staff members from the John Howard Society.

Jesica died of a flu/cold virus on October 18th, 2022.

She was a courageous person who spoke about the importance of medication in her story and reaching out for help. Jesica had a great sense of humour as well.

She was loved by her team members. She made a big difference in reducing stigma in our community and beyond as she often presented with our rural Partnership Program team in small communities across Saskatchewan.

She is someone who made a difference. She will be greatly missed.

If anyone in the community would like to share their story of living with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder or clinical depression - please get in touch with Curtis at Curtis@schizophrenia.sk.ca. Curtis is happy to assist you with writing your story.

We are also looking for family members of people with mental illness to share the impact mental health has on their families. Likewise, if you are a mental health professional or a student studying- nursing, medicine, psychology, social work, sociology, recreation/occupational therapy or addictions you might be interested also in becoming a stigma buster who helps our team to present the facts and reduce the stigma around mental illness.

Joining our team would be a great way to honour the memory of Jesica.

Jesica’s obituary can be viewed at this link.