There were a lot of services that the Yazidi community members were provided with when they were resettled to Canada. There were about 1,100 Yazidis who were resettled to four communities across Canada: London, Ontario; Toronto region; Calgary; and Winnipeg.
These communities receive funding from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada as part of the resettlement assistance program. Through those programs—the Association for New Canadians in St. John's, Newfoundland provides the service here—we are mandated to provide housing assistance and linkage to the provincial health system.
When the Yazidis arrived, the trauma that the Yazidis had experienced—I was part of one of those teams that responded in one of those communities—was unlike trauma I have ever seen. I have been working overseas and in Canada for almost 20 years now, and I will be honest, when they came, it was very traumatizing, even for those of us with experience in the sector, to hear their stories and to respond to their needs.
As you said, there was definitely a bit of a lag in our response at the outset. We, as a system of settlement service providers, both understood and came to understand the severity and the complexity of their traumas, but we also developed the appropriate mental health response.
In delivering mental health services to newcomers, we did a very rigorous research project and we introduced mental health screening at multiple milestones and touchpoints throughout their journey. Consistently, we find that newcomers who are resettled under the resettlement assistance program are really only ready for mental health services at the eighth month—