The 12 pilot communities that we've had in the past.
Evidence of meeting #32 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was community.
Evidence of meeting #32 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was community.
9:55 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
The 12 pilot communities that we've had in the past.
9:55 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
It's what we have done in the past. Right now we're not funding any communities directly, as we've just finished up development. But we have provided funding in the past for communities to be able to get some money so that they could either have a facilitator or they could use the money how they saw fit, to really support that. If the programming in place didn't have, necessarily, a youth worker who could facilitate it, or maybe they didn't have a venue, it was up to them to work with us to figure out how that money would be used.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
In the past, what kinds of resources went into helping other organizations to build up that capacity and to be able to do that work?
9:55 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
What types of organizations?
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
You just said that in the past you had resources that were provided to other organizations, communities, to do this work. I'm just wondering how many organizations benefited from that.
9:55 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
We had Cowichan Tribes, Daylu Dena Council, Nisga’a Lisims Government, Gitsegukla health centre, Nak’azdli Band, the walk tall program out of Carrier Sekani Family Services in Prince George, the Okanagan Nation Alliance, the Urban Native Youth Association here in Vancouver, the Squiala First Nation, the Sumas First Nation, and Métis Youth B.C. All of these we've partnered with.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
When you say you partner with them, you mean these organizations were given funding to develop a conference or program of their own?
9:55 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
In the initial development phase, they helped us pilot the training. We took their direction and learned what they wanted to see, and we worked with them to develop it. Then we provided funding to help them pilot the training in their communities, so that they could check to see if we were getting it right. They used that money to support some piloting and the training in their communities.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
When you say you piloted the training, what does that mean exactly?
9:55 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
We had communities that had agreed to support the development—these are the ones I just listed—and they were going to run the youth group, or run the training, either a youth group or their schools. They were going through the entire training to give us feedback on what they thought about the program.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
9:55 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
We haven't done a big launch yet. We kind of just did a soft launch earlier this year. It's tricky counting numbers. We provide the link to the communities. They can either sign up under one name and then log in and go through it as a group, or, if they want, we had some people who had multiple computers so that youth could log in and create their own.
It's a tough call to say how many per se, but within the 12 communities that initially piloted, we're looking at at least 200 to 300 out of that group. It's hard to track because we're trying to make it accessible and not burdensome for them to be reporting to us. We just want them to be able to use it as they see fit, without having us always asking what they're doing.
9:55 a.m.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
One of the issues raised was that, when youth have challenges, whether from past trauma, their current situation, or whatever the case may be, when an intervention takes place, usually a 911 call is made. They are then shepherded to the hospital and from there they are detained. After that, I guess there's a psych assessment and then they're released. There's no follow-up with respect to counselling support, for example. Some organizations say it would be really great to not actually phone 911, but rather, to phone some other place to get support for youth who might be showing suicidal tendencies.
I'm wondering if there's anything within PHSA that provides these kinds of support for youth. If not, even within your programming, has this come up as an issue?
10 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
We're doing upstream work, so we're not dealing with crisis management in any form. The direction we got from the community was that they wanted upstream programming, so I can't speak to that.
10 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
With the youth we've spoken with, that wasn't the main priority we heard. I'm not saying it's not a problem. I think you'll have to ask the community members and they'll tell you.
10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Andy Fillmore
I'm sorry, Jenny, you're out of time.
Before we go to the next questioner, I'm trying to articulate something that might be helpful. The impression I'm getting is that your program is to suicide prevention what perhaps exercise and good diet are to disease prevention. It's not IVs and surgery for disease prevention. You're way upstream from that. You're about good living, basically. Right?
10 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
Yes, that's correct.
10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Andy Fillmore
Hopefully, that's helpful in framing the situation.
The next questions are from Don Rusnak.
10 a.m.
Liberal
Don Rusnak Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
That's kind of what I wanted to get at. First of all, we didn't get a backgrounder, or at least I can't find it. As to the Provincial Health Services Authority, I'm sorry but I'm from Ontario and I'm not familiar with the authorities out here.
Is it the Provincial Health Services Authority here in B.C. that funds your organization, or are you a part of that organization?
10 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
We're a part of it.
10 a.m.
Project Manager, Indigenous Health, Provincial Health Services Authority
We work for the indigenous health program inside of PHSA. We're the core indigenous health program and we deliver indigenous youth wellness programming that I'm here to talk about as well as the indigenous cultural safety program.