We acknowledge that we are privileged to be living, working and studying on the traditional, ancestral, unceded and occupied land of the Coast Salish Nations, including xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Watauth) Nations.
We know the original residents were dispossessed—their homes, hunting, fishing grounds stolen by settlers sponsored, sanctioned and supported by the colonial system. Land acknowledgments are a small but essential step of reconciliation. It is crucial to mention that while the West Coast prides itself on being progressive, multicultural cities, the story is quite different in the streets. When thinking of potential topics to explore and since my groupmates' interest lies in gender, race, and social justice issues, and in the context of the BLM movement, we started thinking about marginalized communities and their distress in navigating the current political, social and economic world.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of our research project is to explore how inequalities pervade Canada's mental health system and how this disproportionately affects Indigenous communities to access proper mental healthcare services. There are continuous disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous rates of mental health experiences and service usage, stemming from displacement, socio-economic issues, and healthcare policies and legislation resulting from a continuing colonial legacy. In other words, the history of colonization still manifests in Canada's contemporary economic, political, and social structures, such as the health care system. In 2014, the City of Vancouver organized a task force and created a report detailing their innovative plans to address the city's mental health crisis. In response, Carnegie Community Action Project produced their own report that outlined specific problems plaguing the Downtown Eastside, while centering voices from the community itself. Our research compares the reports through a critical policy analysis approach and notes discrepancies between what the community wants and what the government wants. While organizing workshops to have conversations surrounding stigma, training staff, and increasing emergency response teams are all beneficial priority actions, this paper will suggest that health care policies might benefit from taking into account Canada's colonial history and its particular effects on Indigenous communities' experience with the healthcare system. Moreover, we suggest that the government cannot organize and take action regarding vital policies without having proper community representation to inform their decisions. Therefore, we argue that more attention needs to be paid in enhancing the reciprocal relationship between government decision-making and Indigenous groups' participation. This can be done by direct community involvement in the construction and distribution of essential resources to mitigate the mental health crisis accurately. Thus, we argue that increased attention needs to be paid to overarching issues at the institutional level with the community's direct involvement to address the mental health crisis accurately.
Marvi, S., Duan, K., & Li, N. (2021, March). Colonization and Mental Health: Indigenous Experiences in Canada. Paper presented at the Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference of University of British Columbia at Vancouver, BC.
(The full paper is still being worked on.)
REFERENCES
- Carnegie Community Action Project. (2018). No pill for this ill. http://www.carnegieaction.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/MH-REPORT-FINAL-1.compressed.pdf.
- Goodman, A., Fleming, K., Markwick, N., Morrison, T., Lagimodiere, L., Kerr, T., & Western Indigenous Harm Reduction Society. (2017). “They treated me like crap and I know it was because I was Native”: The healthcare experiences of Indigenous peoples living in Vancouver's inner city. Social Science and Medicine, 178, 87-94. ScienceD https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.01.053
- Kirmayer, L. J., Brass, G. M., Tait, C. L. (2000). The Mental Health of Indigenous Peoples: Transformations of Identity and Community. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 45(7), 607-616. https://doi.org/10.1177/070674370004500702
- Lavoie, J. G., Ward, A., Wong, S. T., Ibrahim, N., Morton, D., O’Neil, J. D., & Green, M. (2018). Hospitalization for mental health related ambulatory care sensitive conditions: What are the trends for first nations in british columbia? International Journal for Equity in Health, 17(1), 156-156. doi:10.1186/s12939-018-0860-7
- Maar, M. A., Erskine, B., McGregor, L., Larose, T. L., Sutherland, M. E., Graham, D., . . Gordon, T. (2009). Innovations on a shoestring: A study of a collaborative community- based Indigenous mental health service model in rural canada. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 3(1), 27-27. doi:10.1186/1752-4458-3-27
- Veenstra, G. (2011). Race, gender, class, and sexual orientation: Intersecting axes of inequality and self-rated health in canada. International Journal for Equity in Health, 10(1), 3-3. doi:10.1186/1475-9276-10-3
- Wilson, M. (2018). "hey, where can I go for help?" : Indigenous people and "good medicine" at an urban Indigenous health agency [Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia]. https://dtesresearchaccess.ubc.ca/