Thank you for that question.
I appreciate the opportunity to say that.... I think the technology that Blue Guardian has is very exciting. It's essentially an alert system, which we didn't have, and a window into young people's experience that we didn't have before and that would be very exciting to have, but we still need parents, teachers and other community members who are prepared and ready to respond. There is a part of this that is about public education, mental health literacy and mental health promotion within communities that is tailored to specific communities, and it also has to be backed up by services that are accessible and acceptable to these different groups.
I think the federal government has the opportunity to be innovative in a way that provincial governments can't be, or haven't been, because it can think outside the existing silos of community services, family services and health services to create something that could be different. I think there could be something exciting. We could think about this in terms of what we have available to individuals: What do we have available to peers of these young women and girls? What do we have available to family members and trusted adults who are around these women and girls? What are the services that are available?
A few people have talked about psychiatrists and the limitations of the tools they use. We need to think more expansively about the type of service providers who are available in the system. I return to my point: not just funding a project here and a project there, but thinking about a health care system that includes healers, psychotherapists and other types of practitioners who might really help with mental health promotion.