Adaptation focuses on unique determinants of mental health
Life in northern Canada comes with many rewards — but it also comes with a unique set of challenges. Relative isolation — and limits on the immediate availability of health-care services — can prove especially challenging in the context of mental health and psychological safety.
That’s why the Mental Health Commission of Canada released a new training course around mental health first aid, adapted for northern communities. The adapted course has been designed to address the specific challenges involved with life in the north — such as seasonal affective disorder and isolation.
"A mental health first aid course specifically designed for northerners provides us with the right tools to overcome the stigma associated with mental health," said Glen Abernethy, minister of health and social services and an MLA for the Yellowknife Great Slave Lake riding.
"This training course, along with our other programs to support mental health, will start a conversation and find solutions for our residents."
What is mental health first aid?
The northern adaptation is based on the Mental Health Commission’s basic Mental Health First Aid training, which has been offered in Canada since 2007, according to Meaghon Reid, director of mental health first aid at the Mental Health Commission of Canada in Ottawa. More than 100,000 people across Canada have completed the training.
"Mental health first aid, the act of mental health first aid, is the assistance to somebody who is experiencing a mental health problem, or who might be in a mental health crisis," she said.
"In our course, people learn how to recognize… the common signs and symptoms of common mental health problems, like depression, for example, or anxiety, substance use issues, those sorts of things. And they also learn how to intervene in the event of a crisis, so that could be something like a suicide attempt, an overdose, a panic attack, a psychotic episode."
Some of the courses also educate on issues like deliberate self-harm and eating disorders, said Reid.
Currently, the commission offers three different courses: a two-day basic course, a course for adults who interact with youth, and the new Northern Peoples adaptation course.
"It’s really exploded over the last couple of years — which we’re really happy about," she said. "People often ask, ‘What can I do?’ And this is a pretty simple start — get the language, understand how to help people, and then go from there."
Adaptation of training
Having an adaptation of the training that was specifically tailored toward Northern Peoples was really important for the territories, said Sara Chorostkowski, manager of mental health and addictions, department of health and social services, government of the Northwest Territories, in Yellowknife.
"Basically, we’ve been offering mental health first aid basic here in the territories for a few years, and it’s been quite successful and there’s been a lot of uptake," she said. "But, at the same time, we also wanted to have a course that was sort of specifically tailored to the northern context, because obviously life in the north is quite different from other parts of the country."
The adapted program was three years in the making, achieved in partnership with the Mental Health Commission and Canada’s three territories.
"It was a pan-territorial project," said Chorostkowski. "We also had an advisory group of community-based experts from all three territories who also guided the actual adaptation to the curriculum."
Adapting the basic mental health first aid course generally takes three to four years, said Reid, because of the evidence-based approach, extensive consultation with experts and stakeholders, and the necessity of ensuring the adapted course is safe.
The northern adaptation is different in that it addresses very particular aspects of life in the north, said Chorostkowski.
"It includes things like seasonal affective disorder and the impacts of isolation. It also speaks to the limited number of health-care professionals that we might have here, the high cost of medical travel… the fact that services are not necessarily available in every single community."
The course also addresses support systems that are specific to the north, said Reid.
"That could be land-based healing centres, for example, or community centres. We also look a bit at Aboriginal well-being and holistic approaches to health."
The training is also a celebration of northern culture, said Reid.
"It really celebrates the uniqueness of northern life... there’s a lot of richness there. So throughout the curriculum, we’ve put a lot of photography and artwork and stories that were written or produced by people in the north, so that people could really see their own mental health experiences reflected in the curriculum," said Reid. "We’ve really tried to have it so that people in the north really see themselves in the product."
Now that the course is complete, the territories have committed to roll it out as part of their mental health plans, said Chorostkowski.
"We have a commitment to offer mental health first aid across the territory in all regions, so at least two courses a year per region," she said. "The department will ensure that instructor training is offered, so that every regional health and social service authority has people who are trained instructors on mental health first aid northern, and that those health authorities will then roll it out free of charge to community members — whoever wants to take it."
Stigma reduction
There’s already been a strong uptake of mental health first aid training in the north, said Reid, and most community members are very aware the training is available.
One of the critical benefits of the training had been a real reduction in stigma around mental health issues, she said.
"From an evidence-based perspective, the course does three things. One is (to) improve mental health literacy among participants. One is to decrease stigma… that means decreasing social distance between someone who has taken mental health first aid and someone with mental illness. And an increase in helping behaviours is a third outcome of mental health first aid training," said Reid, adding the commission is also working on training adaptations for First Nations Peoples, Inuit Peoples and seniors.
This training is an important component of overall health because it helps spark a dialogue around mental health, said Chorostkowski.
"(It) helps open the conversation about mental health and mental illness," she said.
"There can be a lot of stigma and a lot of fear around mental illness, and having a course like this helps to overcome that
stigma and reduce that stigma. And the reason that that is really key and really important is that stigma can definitely be a barrier to people accessing services, which obviously impacts their long-term outcome.
"It’s really important to open the conversation, let people know how to have those conversations in safe and supportive ways, so they can get people connected with resources which will improve their longer-term outcomes."
