Chiefs worried about mental health impacts of COVID-19

First Nations asking for government help to curb growing suicide crisis

OTTAWA—A few months before the coronavirus arrived in Canada, the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation at Loon Lake, Sask., was already raising the alarm over suicides in the community, about 360 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

The First Nation declared a state of crisis in mid-November 2019 after three deaths by suicide occurred over three weeks, including a 10-year-old girl. In the weeks that followed, band leaders say eight people, mainly youths, also tried to take their lives.

Chief Ronald Mitsuing says a deep sense of grief remains within the community of just over 1,000 people, especially after a 31-year-old man in the community died by suicide two weeks ago.

Now, Mitsuing says he fears the stress and worry about a possible outbreak of COVID-19 could trigger further mental health suffering among some of his residents.

“Losing the youth really took a big toll out of our community. And I know it’s ongoing — people thinking about it all the time, can’t get past it,” he said.

“We’re not in that comfortable stage yet where we know it’s going to be all right.”

He is not alone. As the number of COVID-19 cases begins to climb in Indigenous communities across Canada, First Nations and Inuit chiefs say they are deeply concerned about how the pandemic is affecting the mental health of their residents.

The Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation did receive help from the province and federal government to deal with the immediate aftermath of the suicide crisis, but Mitsuing says they need more permanent resources. He wants funding to train locals as trauma counsellors, rather than relying on outside help or having to send youth away for treatment.

Chief Eugene Hart of the Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation in central Labrador shares the same concerns for his community, which also declared a crisis in the months before the pandemic following 10 suicide attempts in less than a week in October 2019. The community of roughly 1,300 people had also been struggling with more than a dozen other deaths from natural causes before that — a toll that was hardest felt by young people with few supports in place to help them address their grief, Hart said.

He echoed Mitsuing’s concerns about not having adequate supports that are permanent. He would like to see fulltime crisis counsellors and staff and mental health crisis lines staffed by people in the community. However, he says his First Nation has not received the support from Ottawa or from the province for added mental health supports.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller says he knows COVID-19 is affecting the mental health of Indigenous communities, particularly among those who are at a high risk from the illness — or have families who are.

He says the federal government is increasing the number of crisis intervention counsellors on shift at the Hope for Wellness helpline, which provides telephone and online support for First Nations, Inuit and Métis in English, French, Cree, Ojibway and Inuktitut.