Good afternoon, members. I am José-Tomas Arriola, clinical supervisor at Kiuna.
As Mr. Gros-Louis explained, the psychosocial services are a critical support to ensure academic success, but they are also an essential element in a process of healing and reconciliation. The prevalence of psychosocial difficulties amongst students at Kiuna has multiple roots, but it is in large part connected to the identity and intergenerational traumas that have wounded multiple generations.
Our psychosocial services are composed of a clinical supervisor, a neuropsychologist, a psychosocial counsellor and two special education counsellors. These services constantly operate at full capacity. Per semester, we can have about 40 follow-ups and now close to 30 assessments of children and students. These numbers are the outcome of students' and their dependents' being undiagnosed until their arrival at Kiuna, resulting from the lack of qualified professionals in communities to undertake assessments and follow-ups.
It is also important to note that these psychosocial services are unique in their form because they are culturally adapted and are offered under several modalities. They range from weekly individual follow-ups, group interventions on functional autonomy or community worker outreach to healthy life habits, traditional and territorial activities organized by our cultural life worker, and our intervention projects through physical activity and outdoors.
As wide, difficult, time-consuming and costly as these efforts may be, they work. Kiuna is proud to say that since their implementation, the number of severe psychosocial crises of disorganization—which mobilize several resources and often gravely affect the student's academic performance—has gone from one or two per semester to zero.
First nations know and possess the tools to combine healing and academic success. It is now up to you and your provincial counterparts to think outside the box and support them.
Thank you.