Achieving mental wellness is perhaps the North's greatest challenge. The lack of treatment and support options fuel untold heartache and hardships on families in all our communities.
Mental health issues and addictions hinder the territory and its people from realizing their full potential.
The territory's great task is to make real improvements, which won't come with just money alone, even though money is certainly needed.
Unfortunately, federal money recently announced for mental health and addictions will amount to only a drop in the bucket at $2.4 million over five years. Health Minister Glen Abernethy says the money will go toward instituting a territorial suicide prevention and crisis support network to help communities such as Fort Simpson, which suffered four suicides over four months last year.
According to figures supplied by the NWT coroner's office, 47 people committed suicide between 2011 and 2015 – 10.6 per cent of all deaths in the territory.
“We have a lot of demand for services … but we don’t always have the money we need for some of the planning and development. This money is critical in developing a network,” said Abernethy.
Alas, $2.4 million over five years seems unlikely to provide for much more than the staff required to administer the network. If it's supposed to pay for programming, we fail to see how.
There needs to be solid support for mental health and getting support to people while they're still young.
The GNWT is giving schools $1.5 million this year to pay for youth counsellors to help students with mental health issues. Again, this seems likely to only scratch at the surface at a problem that needs much more support.
Fortunately, the grassroots have been coming up solutions of their own.
Fort Simpson mayor Darlene Sibbeston points to the Liidlii Kue First Nation, which is training teachers to recognize and act on mental health concerns in class.
Sibbeston is looking for training support from the territorial government, particularly for education staff who intend to stay.
“For so long we’ve had mental health workers and they don’t seem to last long. They come and go,” Sibbeston said. “Other communities are talking about hiring their own people because you know they’re going to stay. There is absolute potential for our members to go into the field.”
Elissa Garrett, a program support teacher at Thomas Simpson Secondary School, said when teachers take part in programs such as Go-To Educator training, the training helps them identify mental distress and get services to children in need.
Dealing with mental issues early is key to preventing more problems in adulthood. In fostering mental wellness the classroom is the place to start.