Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on May 31st, 2016

[Dr. Tom Wong]

The isolation of the communities, and for many of them, the lack of social infrastructure, the lack of access to the Internet—all these things are so important. There is also poverty and all the social determinants of health, the lack of recreation, and the lack of linkages to the elders and their tradition.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

The last five minutes go to Mr. Bossio.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I thank you very much for joining us here today on this very important subject.

Many times we've talked about strategies and frameworks and consultation. Is the consultation to establish strategies and frameworks on mental health and suicide and social determinants just happening at the AFN level, or is it going right down to the reserve level?

[Dr. Tom Wong]

It's happening beyond the AFN level. For Inuit, it's more than just ITK. It goes down to the community level with different first nations and Inuit groups.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Do you know what percentage of different reserves you've actually consulted with, of the 634 reserves across the territories?

[Dr. Tom Wong]

I don't have that number off the top of my head, but it's been a large percentage of that over time.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Okay. I know the CIHR have been doing the same. You've been doing a lot of studies. I assume you're also going right down to the reserve level. It sounded as though that's what you do.

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

Absolutely.

We are working at the community level. For instance, the ACCESS program, which is the major program on mental health in indigenous populations, which I talked about, has been working on the ground with communities. I mentioned the Eskasoni First Nation. That's also at the Sturgeon Lake First Nation, and Ulukhaktok in the Inuvialuit settlement region.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Okay.

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

I could go on and on.

We've also set up partners for engagement and knowledge exchange in the community to help us get the research evidence and the research results into the community to work more closely with them and to learn how to actually work more closely with the community.

Of course, for me, as I mentioned, a key element is to think of the future, through education to support young indigenous researchers. Their number is growing.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Actually, that's where I'm going to get to.

CIHR and Health Canada are working hand in glove on this in these different communities, rolling out this research, identifying the hot spots, etc.

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

We are working collaboratively not only with FNIHB and Health Canada but also with the Public Health Agency of Canada on these various issues, absolutely. We're in the same portfolio.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

What percentage of the people working in these specific areas with indigenous people are of indigenous background?

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

Not enough.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

What percentage would you say, if you had to throw a percentage out there?

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

I don't have the numbers right now, but I can tell you, however, that in the area of aboriginal people's health—and I'm not talking only mental health, since as you know there is also a huge cross-correlation between other disorders and suicide—the number of people doing research on indigenous people's health in 2000 when CIHR was created was 37. The number of researchers working on indigenous people's health issues right now is 1,174.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

That's great.

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

The number of indigenous researchers has also increased, but not by enough.

One of the problems we are facing is, again, a problem of self-reliance, of support, of mentoring, of maintaining the cultural identity, and of maintaining the contact with elders, so that they have role models in the research community, but they also need to keep role models in their own community as well.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Okay.

Sorry, but we're really running out of time here.

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

We've developed a program to support that.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

That's where I'm going as well. I know the challenges exist out there to try to get more and more indigenous people into these roles. How long does it take to train somebody to be a mental health support individual within the community?

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

You have to start education early on. You have to decrease the dropout rates in high school. You have to bring them to university and once they're there, you have to build their self-reliance, their self-confidence....

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I'm just looking, from a post-secondary standpoint, at whether it is a four-year program, eight years, or a Ph.D.

[Dr. Alain Beaudet]

We're starting to get them in some projects while they're in high school.

[Mike Bossio, Liberal, Hastings—Lennox and Addington, ON]

Good.

I'm out of time.