A retired Okanagan RCMP officer has dedicated himself to raising awareness of mental health challenges. 

That journey has led Randy Kolibaba to write a book Is This The Life You Imagined?, about his life experience dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in a career that has included serving in Canada's largest civilian peacekeeping mission with the United Nations in Kosovo in 1989 and overseeing the operations of the North Okanagan RCMP detachment from 2000 to 2005. 

Now Kolibaba's passion has led him into a new role as chief operating officer for Inner Immersion Inc., an organization dedicated to advancing mental health care options for people while drawing from the rich tapestry and knowledge of the First Nations culture to help uncover deep-seated emotional wounds based around the cornerstones of acceptance, forgiveness, self-worth, resilience and hope.  

The philosophy behind Inner Immersion is specifically designed for critical treatment need areas such as drug addiction, behavioural health, trauma and stress-related disorders. 

The art-based program, administered by licensed mental health care professionals, serves as a health care vehicle to enable professionals to provide better treatment options. 

"Our immersion program is not about diagnosing or prescribing treatment, we are more like a mental care x-ray machine," explained Kolibaba.

"Like you would get an x-ray of a broken arm, it enables the doctor to follow up with the appropriate treatment. That is what we do from a mental health perspective."

In the mental health care field, Kolibaba says misdiagnosis is a common failure for depression and social anxiety disorders. 

As a result, he says 70 per cent of patients don't respond positively to mental health care first treatments, and 30 per cent are still not responding by the fourth treatment. 

Kolibaba says that creates inefficiencies in the commitment of financial resources in the health care sector to mental health treatment that is often misdirected.

He cites the need to create an environment of trust and openness, which leads to identifying what is the source of anxiety issues and allows therapists a clearer pathway on what treatment solutions to provide. 

Inner Immersion is based on founder Jose Hernandez's near-death experience in 2000 and his subsequent gruelling years-long recovery. 

An Okanagan resident and former electrical engineer, in 2004 Hernandez began using art as a meditative tool, is artworks eventually being exhibited in U.S. art galleries and other public collections. 

His life experience is showcased in the Netflix docu-series Surviving Death. 

"We gently facilitate the identification of core wounds, allowing the participant to process and integrate past traumas in a safe, gentle process effecting a transformative shift in the participant, building trust and fostering personal growth," states the Inner Immersion website. 

Kolibaba said the goal of Inner Immersion is to be fully integrated with existing mental health care treatment programs in areas such as senior care, Indigenous health and wellness, and mental health and substance abuse.

He says increased accurate diagnosis capacity places less demand on existing care resources such as hospital emergency services, and quicker development of treatment regimes. 

Inner Immersion is designed to assist, not replace mental health care services provided by trained professionals. 

He adds Inner Immersion has already demonstrated positive outcomes working with organizations such as Red Road Recovery Centre, Desert Valley Hospice Society and various First Nations bands within the Interior Health region.

Discussions with the Ministry of Health about the Inner Immersion program were underway with the previous provincial government, and he expects that process will continue under the recently elected new government.

"Our thoughtfully developed program is practical and efficient, designed to be cost-effective while making a significant impact," he said. 

"Our system is based on one element, getting people quicker and more effective mental health care, and everything cascades from that. Doing the right thing for the right reasons is never wrong."