National Summit on Indigenous Mental Wellness

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On October 25 and 26, 2023, Ottawa hosted the Second National Summit on Indigenous Mental Wellness. The objective was to support Indigenous mental wellness and promote healing through strength-based approaches.

Chief n̓aasʔałuk (John Rampanen)
Ahousaht First Nation

John Rampanen:
Our intention of being here at the National Summit on Indigenous Mental Wellness is to open up lines of communication not only with government officials but, most importantly, with other Indigenous Peoples and organizations as well, because we know that in order to walk that path that we're going to have to work collaboratively.

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Dr. Carol Hopkins
Executive Director, Thunderbird Partnership Foundation

Dr. Carol Hopkins:
Indigenous Peoples, people of the land, the original people of this land, the First Nations people, we have strengths, we have answers, we have solutions, we have good evidence, we have ways of knowing.

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Dr. Brenda Restoule
CEO, First Peoples Wellness Circle

Dr. Brenda Restoule:
We have a responsibility to recognize that we all must take care of everybody in our communities, regardless of what their challenges are. Our teachings have taught us that we all have a place in our communities and we all have a role.

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Kelsey Todd
Métis Nation British Columbia

Kelsey Todd:
The Métis experience is either overlooked, underrepresented, or completely erased.

Métis people know what's best for Métis people. And if we want to develop Métis programming, if we want to do things for Métis people, it needs to be led by Métis people.

John Rampanen:
The approach moving forward is also to keep an eye on the ancestral components of who we are.

What we feel is that we're building off the legacy of our ancestors, and the knowledge base and the intelligence and the strength and the beauty that they contain have a lot to teach us and remind us of the inner fortitude and resilience that we have and the ability to be able to take this type of challenge on.

Dr. Carol Hopkins:
We need capacity in First Nations communities to address the crisis of opioids, methamphetamine, and alcohol. We need our culture, but we also need to have good allies who are practicing medicine, you know, people who are prescribers, physicians, nurse practitioners. We need allies who are, who can commit to community development.

Dr. Brenda Restoule:
Once you start talking about it from a strengths-based approach and talking about mental wellness, it really forces people to think about, what are the strengths in our communities and why are we not investing in strengths?

Not because we don't want to attend to those issues that are causing struggles and harm to our community. But when you invest in strengths, you help people develop resiliency, you help people develop skills, and it also gives them, I think, a real sense of hope, which is of course, one of the outcomes of the First Nations Mental Wellness Continuum Framework.

Hope that, you know, I can overcome this, I can deal with the challenges I have in my life.

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Stephanie Nirlungayuk
Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada

Stephanie Nirlungayuk:
It's so inspiring to see all of the work that everyone is doing. It makes me so hopeful for our Indigenous, specifically youth. It makes me feel good knowing that my cousins and my relatives are going to have a space, a safe space going forward. So, it's been really, really beautiful to see all the work that everyone is doing here.

Dr. Carol Hopkins:
I am optimistic. As a leader in mental wellness, I accept the responsibility that my Elders have taught me, is that we have a responsibility to create hope, support hope and ensure hope for the future.

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Distinctions-based approaches that focus on culture, traditional knowledge and community that are developed by Indigenous Peoples for Indigenous Peoples are most effective in improving mental wellness for First Nations, Inuit and Métis.