[Witness spoke in Severn Ojibwa]
[English]
I greet all the people who are joining us from a distance and all those here as well.
I'm asking the Lord to help us and bless us. I thank Him that He's given us a beautiful day today. I thank Him also for health and well-being.
Good afternoon.
We are honoured to have the opportunity to appear before you today to share the incredible effort of the NAN Hope mental health and addictions support access program in providing care to the 49 communities of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation in northern Ontario.
My name is Orpah McKenzie. I am the director of e-health services at Keewaytinook Okimakanak eHealth Telemedicine, a provincially integrated telemedicine network that provides access to thousands of physicians, nurses and allied health care providers for 26 NAN communities. I am joined by Carl Dalton, CEO of Dalton Associates, a mental health organization that offers a culturally safe and attuned clinical workforce as well as mental health program development and management expertise. In partnership, our organizations designed and deliver NAN Hope.
NAN Hope began as an innovation in response to the NAN COVID-19 task team’s investigations that revealed a high need for mental health and addictions support for the NAN region, given the challenges that were caused or exacerbated by the pandemic and resultant restrictions. To this day, NAN Hope is the only NAN-wide mental health and addiction support program, and we are honoured to have served over 1,000 NAN citizens since launching in August 2020.
NAN Hope strives to create a safe and trusting environment for the people and communities we serve. The fact that NAN Hope has been able to grow and expand is precisely because we have worked hard to build trust and shared care within the NAN region and have proven ourselves to be exceptionally responsive when needs arise that impact mental health and addictions at a community or individual level.
I'll turn it over to Carl.