Yes. I believe this was in relation to traditional counsellors.
There are many different types of mental health services that can help an individual. From an Inuit perspective, there are clinical mental health services that some Inuit may need, and then there are more traditional or culturally specific mental health supports and services that Inuit need. Those two systems can live together and support one another in a diagnosis and in treatment. In many cases, the decision-making about the cost for those and whether or not an individual is eligible has not been equitable.
We are seeing the federal government recognize Inuit cultural and technical mental health supports in a much broader way than we did prior to the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement and the programs that were mandated out of that particular settlement. We have seen over a decade of Inuit-specific mental health supports and services being provided through federal funds that have helped thousands of Inuit.
We hope that the NIHB program can seamlessly accept those types of mental health supports alongside clinical supports.