Live Different Indigenous Program Research

helped me pivot in my understanding of mental health as a social issue (versus purely an individual issue) to a social justice issue

, I stumbled upon The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger by social epidemiologists Roger Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. In this book, the authors clearly demonstrate a causal relationship between income inequality and increased mental illness diagnoses. The US is at the top of that income inequality list. As expected, we have the highest rate of mental illness.

“the power of markets is enormous, but they have no inherent moral character. We have to decide how to manage them.” He continues, “it is plain that markets must be tamed and tempered to make sure they work to the benefit of most citizens.”

I saw that the sources of addiction do not originate in the substances people use but in the trauma they endured

The resonant values, brilliant art, stories and wisdom culture of First Nations people should be introduced in Canadian schools. Canadians must be helped to see their First Nations peers in their fullness, which includes their humanity, grandeur, unspeakable suffering and strength.

50 years ago it was not unheard of for a four-year-old girl to have a pin stuck in her tongue for the crime of speaking her mother language and later endure serial rape by teachers, religious mentors.

The inclusion of culturally-relevant experiences has been identified as a best practice in programming. Mentoring has also been identified as an effective and important mechanism for supporting Aboriginal youth.

The Uniting Our Nations programs were developed in collaboration with Aboriginal educators, students, counsellors, and community partners. The following programs are available for Aboriginal populations:    Fourth R Aboriginal Perspectives Program (curriculum-based, secondary school) Cultural Leadership Course (curriculum-based, secondary school) Elementary Mentoring Program (elementary school) Peer Mentoring Program (secondary school) Cultural Camp (secondary school) Grade 8 Transition Conference (elementary school) Supporting Aboriginal Learning: Reflections from the Voices of Our Youth (resource DVD)

suspensions dropped 90%, there were no expulsions, and kids’ grades, test scores and graduation rates surged.

Severe and chronic trauma (such as living with an alcoholic parent, or watching in terror as your mom gets beat up) causes toxic stress in kids. Toxic stress damages kid’s brains. When trauma launches kids into flight, fight or fright mode, they cannot learn. It is physiologically impossible.

Sporleder and his staff implemented three basic changes that essentially shifted their approach to student behavior from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What happened to you?”

David Alexander said the project set out a simple way of questioning all children about their mental wellbeing when they came to CYF's attention. Depressed and at-risk children were then referred to special mental health clinicians, management plans were drawn up for each of them, and social workers were given professional help from psychologists to monitor their progress.