>> How capable or incapable are Western ways of dealing with mental health issues equipped to deal, deal with this, this, this issue? >> Well, currently in the field of mental health, there's a lot of empirical evidence to show that Aboriginal people in Canada, our needs are not being met by the current mental health system. So, for instance, data shows that most native people, Aboriginal people, who access mental health services when they are able to access it, because there is a problem with accessibility. Either don't return after a first visit or consultation, or do not value counseling or mental health approaches that do not come from an aboriginal world view, or do not at least respect that world view. In addition to that there is a substantial amount of data from Health Canada and other independent researchers that show that as a whole Aboriginal populations have higher rates of mental health problems. The non aboriginal populations. So this incidence may vary from community to community and does in fact vary. Because some communities have higher health problems. Mental health problems in some communities have very low mental health problems. So I don't want to make a generalized statement. >> Mm-hmm. >> But when we look at the data as a whole the Aboriginal populations have higher rates of depression. Ptsd family violence, grief and loss mood disorders And that sort of thing. You know, there, there is, there is that information to substantiate that this is often the case. But at the same time, as being aware that there's a higher rate of mental health problems in communities, Aboriginal people also under use mental health services. So from a public health perspective, we understand that people who need mental health support are not getting it for some reason. One of the reasons is, is that there are huge paradigmatic differences between Western culture world view as a whole and indigenous traditional world views. The second reason is that most mental health workers are not trained in any cultural understanding related to aboriginal people including traditional forms of health and healing. And the third reason is, is that there is also a lot of evidence to show that indigenous people do not access or value health services including mal services, mental health services that, that are adapted to traditional cultural helping models. >> There's probably a stigma for seeking out mental health support as well. >> There can be. I think, you know, that's something that's prevalent in all of society. But I think because aboriginal people have, been historically, and currently continue to be pathologized by the dominant western health care system. That there is also a large sense, sense of complacency in accepting that there's something wrong with me. >> Mm hm. >> I'm aboriginal, so there is probably something wrong mentally. Or physically wrong with me because the dominant health care system has continuously pathologized all aspects of the aboriginal ways of knowing and being. >> Mm-hm. So, so given these paradigmatic differences are there things that, that can be done to sort of restore that balance? You talked about that balance between the different aspects of between being and well being. Are there healing models, that you use? >> There are healing models. So to, to begin to address the intergenerational effects of residential school, so to kind of get back to that question that you initially posed. You know, what is intergenerational trauma? And what does that mean? So the intergenerational trauma, and the effects of that manifest in individuals. As things like low self-esteem, depression, anxiety substance ab, m, misuse, and addiction. Patterns of problematic relationships. Inability to finish school or stay in school although there are systemic reasons for that as well problems finding and keeping work. These, these types of symptoms as their called or disorders in. The western model of health care are ways that the effects of intergenerational trauma can manifest in people's lives. In, in, in relation with what goes on in the social environment, what goes on in the world of people. And you know, a lot of my research has talked not only about what goes on inside of young people when they're trying to find out who they are as individuals. You know? Understand what their cultural identity is. And what the impact that is on their educational outcomes. Their ability to find and keep work. Their ability to resist the risk of being homeless or street life or their ability to stay off the street and live as non-homeless people. The research that I've done around those things has really showed its, a large part of that has to do with the self esteem and the self efficacy, what people believe in themselves, and what they believe about themselves. That has an impact as well as the strength of their relationships with people in their family and their community, as well as their sense of their cultural identity. So the stronger their sense of, of cultural identity as a Native person, the better they are able to deal with the challenges that come from the effects of intergenerational trauma. The other important component that is, is that in all of the different research projects I've worked in, one of the significant results that has come up, working with youth and with adults who work with youth. Is that the systemic barriers of racism and oppression are highly significant in perpetrating and perpetuating the ongoing difficulties that people experience in relation to intergenerational trauma. So it's not just what it's going on inside the person and how they're managing their feelings and their sense of who they are, but it's also about what society is telling them and how society is treating them. That is making the effects of intergenerational trauma harder to deal with. >> That's interesting. So we're taking about individual healing. Are there models for community healing? >> So,[cough]. There are a number of models that have been developed in psychology, for instance, that are usually based on the medicine we all model. Because when we talk about mental health, as I said earlier. Mental health is understood holistically. Meaning that it's understood as comprising four aspects: the mental, the physical, the spiritual and the emotional. The medicine wheel is a model that utliizes those four aspects of a percent of the community of a situation. And allows individuals and communities to be able to address issues from that holistic perspective. So there are a number of, of models like that. Early, earlier in my program of research about seven years ago. I developed a holistic model of counseling and mental health, that was based on the medicine wheel. But that also incorporated concepts of needing to be holistic of interdependence of community, into mental health, so basically helping the field of mental health. As well as students who are learning about what indigenous mental health is. To understand that mental health, apart from being holistic, is also something that requires the concept of relationship. So, interconnectedness. As well as community to be part of the process of healing and working with clients and with communities. Because from an indigenous paradigm, people are seen as interconnected and from and not from an individualist perspective as in Western culture. So, in traditional and indigenous way of understanding healing, healing is not going to happen for people until they understand who they are as an indigenous person, and how they are as an indigenous person in relation to other people. And in relationship with other people. >> Thanks, Suzanne, for sharing your knowledge on this topic. >> You're welcome.
