Therapists to help Indigenous communities cope

Therapists will work with grieving Indigenous communities in north

Provincial crisis mental health teams are working with Indigenous communities in Cadotte Lake and Little Buffalo after two teenagers died by suicide and two more youths were hospitalized after attempting to take their own lives.

In what has been a tragic year for the small communities located about 500 kilometres north of Edmonton, the events of the past few weeks follow the death in January of a popular Cadotte Lake School teacher who died in a car crash and the slaying of a 69-year-old elder, a case where two teens have since been charged.

Cadotte Lake School principal Eldon Okanee said Friday the death of a 17-year-old male Grade 11 student in early May “had a deep impact” on the school and the community.

The other victim, a teenage girl, was a resident of Cadotte Lake but went to a neighbouring school in Little Buffalo, Okanee said. The other two youths are recovering, he added.

“The school didn’t want any more copycat-type of behaviour where students would carry on suicides so we asked for help and we are getting that,” he said.

“I know it has impacted the whole community, the chief and council have taken this very seriously and they are concerned about any more self harm from anyone.”

Okanee said another recent death of a young woman in a car crash has also had a “really detrimental impact on students.

“It’s been a difficult year for our school and the community and you see it in our students and our staff. Everybody is related up here,” he said.

“There are a lot of people walking around here going through grief and mourning.

“That’s very noticeable in the body language.

“I know there are other issues and problems in the community. It’s not a problem unique to the school.”

Alberta Health Services interim north zone medical director Sandra Corbett said mental health therapists were working in the community “to provide support to local residents, in addition to existing supports they already have available.”

Corbett said a member of the provincial Indigenous health program is “available to provide community support and an AHS Indigenous Health Liaison has been meeting with and supporting families and clients.”

“AHS mental health services will continue to be made available as needed,” she said.

“We have a close partnership with these communities and when they ask for additional resources based on the changing needs of their community we always do what we can to help.”

An AHS public health nurse who regularly visits the school in Little Buffalo has also been attending community meetings and will continue to help support health promotion initiatives.

Indigenous Services Canada spokesman Martine Stevens said the Lesser Slave Lake Indian Regional Council mental wellness crisis response team has offered to provide support in the communities.

The response team is one of six mental wellness crisis response teams in Alberta supported by Ingenious Services Canada.

Other mental wellness teams are on standby to support if determined by the community, Stevens said.

“Indigenous Services Canada will continue to meet with partners to support this community with their response, as needed.”

Okanee has requested that extra resources remain in the community throughout the summer after school ends on June 29 to continue to provide grief counselling and address suicide prevention.

“There is a campaign to work with the parents to get them engaged and to get the community engaged,” he said.

“It’s not just the school, it’s the community and about other agencies working together.”

In January, popular teacher Sana Ayesha Ghani, 29, was driving to visit her family in Edmonton when her car lost control in freezing rain on Highway 2, about 25 kilometres southeast of Slave Lake.

She was struck by two other vehicles and died in hospital a few hours later.

In an unrelated incident, two teens were charged with seconddegree murder after a 69-year-old man was found dead in Cadotte Lake in February.

Peace Regional RCMP were called to reports of an assault on the Woodland Cree First Nation and discovered the body of a man identified as William Raymond Merrier.

A national toll-free First Nations and Inuit Hope for Wellness Help Line can be reached at 1-855242-3310 to provide immediate, culturally competent, telephone crisis intervention counselling support.