The “truth” in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, highlighted this week in Vancouver, involves the telling of painful personal stories of abuse endured in B.C. residential schools and the trauma that followed. What needs to be done to heal this hurt is a matter of differing opinion.
For the duration of the Indian Residential School Settlement Agreement, Health Canada staffs a crisis line with access to counselling services, but Rod McCormick, former associate professor of counselling psychology at the University of B.C. and current professor and chair of Aboriginal Child and Maternal Health at Thompson Rivers University, argues more long-term and culturally appropriate services are needed. McCormick, a Mohawk, resigned as a consultant to Health Canada for the first national Truth and Reconciliation Commission event in 2010. He called that event mere “window dressing.”
McCormick told the Courier this week there continues to be a “huge gap” between what former students need and the help available to them. He worries that when the First Nations Health Authority takes responsibility for aboriginal health care Oct 1, not enough funding will be provided to run the mental health programs the council has planned. He said healing damage done to generations of aboriginal families through residential schools and a culture of “imperialism” takes time. Aboriginal therapists are rare, he said, and many non-native counsellors are not educated in First Nations history so often a client has to spend time educating the therapist. He said funding has been cut to culturally appropriate programs, such as the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, that would have helped former students in the longer term.
Diana Day, spokeswoman for Vancouver Coastal Health’s Aboriginal Health Strategic Initiatives, said there is a three-month waiting list for therapists in the VCH wellness program, but access is available to support groups. She said most workers in the program are aboriginal and non-natives take “cultural competency training.” Services will not be affected by the upcoming transfer to the FNHA, she said.
She said she would like to see services expanded, but further trauma to survivors could be avoided if non-natives were “more aware and culturally sensitive to First Nations people and provide some respect.”
Sharon Thira, program director of the aboriginal health research group Kloshe Tillicum, and a consultant for the commission, agrees changes to the larger society are what will most help former students. She said focusing on individual healing right now is misguided.
Healing is complex and should be controlled by the survivors, she said.
Note: This story has been updated since it was first posted Sept. 19
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