To meet the needs of NAN citizens in both remote and urban settings, NAN Hope offers a virtual, holistic, rapid-access approach to mental health, addictions and crisis support that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year by telephone, web chat, video and text messages.
NAN citizens have immediate access to crisis counselling, long-term counselling, navigation assistance and ongoing case management, all of which has resulted in our ability to save lives in real time in partnership with our community partners.
Our program is distinct from many existing services because we maintain relationships with clients, remote nursing stations, doctors and community-based organizations. We accept referrals and conduct outreach. We don't wait for calls to come in.
We offer barrier-free services in English, Ojibwa, Oji-Cree and Cree. We have a strong roster of respected and experienced counsellors, many of whom are indigenous and all of whom are regulated health professionals or trained in indigenous cultural healing and helping practices. Uniquely, NAN Hope also hosts regular virtual healing circles and virtual community cultural gatherings, which have been well attended during the pandemic time.
Currently, we are launching a mapping tool on the NAN Hope website, after having extensively mapped existing local and regional mental health and addictions services. This will take the onus from NAN citizens who must often navigate confusing pathways to access services in settings outside of their homes. With this application, we can better fill gaps, ensure against duplication and identify existing services.
In addition to the virtual support offered by NAN Hope, we do receive calls from communities for in-person mental health services. Recently, we received some additional funding to answer this call. However, our request to extend that funding and to continue offering in-person services in remote communities that are in crisis has not yet been approved. We recommend that the Government of Canada invest in the growth of NAN Hope, so that we can deliver critical crisis and mental health services in remote or fly-in communities when called to do so.
We wish to own space to deliver services in the urban centres of Thunder Bay, central Ontario and Timmins, Ontario—where many NAN citizens reside—to receive in-person services and primary health care services.
NAN Hope was originally funded for only one year; however, we have obtained an extension to March 31, 2024. We are grateful for the additional two years of funding. However, we would like assurance that we're putting infrastructure in place over these years to deliver a longer-term mental health and addictions support access program in the north. We request longer-term, increased funding for at least five years to allow NAN Hope to truly take root, grow and gain sustainability.
We appreciate your time and attention to these critical matters. This is an essential next step for continuity of mental health care in the NAN region.
Thank you.