Good morning, Madam Chair and honourable committee members. Thank you so much for inviting me to speak today. It's such a great honour.
My name is Abrar Mechmechia. I am a Canadian Syrian mental health counsellor with expertise in working with trauma since 2014, back home and in Canada. I am currently leading an organization that is dedicated to providing affordable, trauma-informed, art-based and culturally sensitive trauma and mental health support for diverse newcomers and immigrants. Our services are carried out through professionals with lived experience and those who speak our clients' first language. Our main focus is usually women and youth.
I am speaking today from both my professional and personal experience, as a young woman dealing with layers of past trauma while striving to make a living and build a future with limited support. I'm not the only one out there.
As shared in our “Together Towards Recovery” report, during the pandemic my team led a national advocacy campaign focused on understanding the barriers to mental health support and services faced by marginalized youth. We undertook research to determine the impact of COVID on youth, especially those who come from under-represented communities. Of the 308 total research participants, the majority were female.
Our research showed that the primary barrier to accessing mental health support was inaccessibility. Many did not know where to seek long-term support. Even if they did, they were deterred by the unreasonably long waiting time. This relates to geographical and mostly financial inaccessibility of the service. Those who did get access often felt that it was generic. They did not feel that they were understood. They felt that the care provider lacked cultural competency, failing to understand their gender identity, their experience, the trauma they carried with them and the context.
One time I had a conversation with a young woman who told me her therapist said to her, “Well, if you would just try to loosen up, you could probably fit in or feel more included.” She was referring to her hijab and the way she dressed. It was really heartbreaking for me to hear that such a young woman, 17 or 18 years old, was facing that type of discrimination within the health sector.
Women, especially immigrant women, face a disproportionate amount of discrimination and racism on a daily basis, which leads to an increased prevalence of anxiety, depression, loss of esteem, body image problems, isolation, and the pressure to fit in and feel that they belong, all added to the layers of trauma they face, and yet there are very few services they can reach out to for help.
These findings informed our vision to provide culturally sensitive, trauma-informed services for marginalized populations, especially newcomer and immigrant women and girls. Throughout the last two years, besides our “In This Together” campaign, we have launched three projects focused on providing needs-based early intervention for newcomer and immigrant women.
For example, “Brave Space” was an early intervention support group that was created to support Muslim women after the Islamophobic attack that happened in London, Ontario. This project's goal was to support women who felt threatened after what happened. It was piloted in Hamilton, Ontario, with the support of community organizations like HCCI and SACHA, and Nrinder Nann, a city councillor. We hope to relaunch this project again with some support.
Another project was “Friends & Coffee”, our first virtual support group, 12 sessions, in partnership with the Syrian Canadian Foundation to support Arabic-speaking women throughout the early stages of the pandemic.
Lastly, there's our Dil Ba Dil project, which launched this month with the support of a lot of women, the Mental Health Commission of Canada—who are present today; thank you so much—and the Future Ready Initiative.
I think my time is nearly up.
What we hope to see is free, trauma-informed, culturally sensitive mental health support for marginalized women and young girls, especially newcomers and immigrants who have gone through a lot of trauma and still deal with discrimination every day. Canada is a country of immigrants, and we lack a lot of support that understands migration trauma and the marginalization experienced in total.
Thank you so much for giving me the time and the platform today to represent the many voices I'm carrying. It's such a responsibility.
Thank you so much for listening.