The Canadian Press
Kristy Kirkup
OTTAWA–Ontario Health minister Eric Hoskins has announced funding for 20 full-time mental health workers for Pikangikum First Nation–a remote community struggling with a suicide crisis and pressing mental health needs from about 380 people seeking counselling.
The mental health workers will be going to the reserve, located near the Ontario and Manitoba border, immediately at a cost of about $1.6 million dollars, Hoskins said.
“This can’t be an issue of jurisdiction,” Hoskins stressed in an interview with The Canadian Press.
“We heard directly from the chief . . . as well as others that the situation on the ground in Pikangikum, just how grave it is, and the need for trauma counselling as well as broader mental health supports for children and youth at risk,” he noted.
There are eight mental health workers on the ground at the moment jointly funded by the province and the federal government, Hoskins said.
Pikangikum has had a long-standing battle with suicide; at least four young people have taken their lives in the remote community recently.
Ontario also is announcing what it calls a new indigenous youth and community wellness secretariat designed to co-ordinate and speed up government efforts while it also works with indigenous partners and Ottawa, Hoskins said.
“It will become, essentially, a one-stop shop for . . . our indigenous partners if a response is required or if there is a circumstance that requires an urgent response,” he explained.
“We expect next week it will start . . . it will be a full-time secretariat to almost fast-track key files whether it is in health or education.”
Hoskins’ announcements came as he prepared to meet today in Ottawa with federal Health minister Jane Philpott and Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler.
The group is expected to sign a charter of principles aiming to transform the health-care system for First Nations.
But Dr. Michael Kirlew, a physician based in Sioux Lookout, Ont., believes the indigenous youth suicide crisis in Northern Ontario and elsewhere won’t be addressed unless there is a fundamental rethink of the way care is delivered on reserves.
“The health-care system . . . First Nations’ people receive is not equal,” he charged, noting Canada has grown accustomed to witnessing this injustice.
“It is inferior . . . it is not equitable,” Kirlew stressed. “The children, whether they are in Pikangikum, Summer Beaver, Wapekeka, they do not have access to mental health services they need, period.”
Indigenous health has been focused on measuring the number of dollars spent as opposed to health outcomes, added Dr. Alika Lafontaine, past president of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada.
That needs to change, he said.
“When you’re talking about health transformation, what you’re really looking at is changing the intent of the system to achieve a different outcome,” Lafontaine remarked.
“In indigenous health, what you’re trying to do is create an outcome that’s different than our colonial outcome, which was extinguishing the rights of indigenous people through land and resources.”
Communities already have put forward transformation proposals, Kirlew noted.
“Communities know what is going to work for them,” he said.
“Why can’t we help support those plans?”
