SECOND-CLASS TREATMENT
On Monday, Kathleen Wynne apologized in the Ontario legislature for the residential schools saga, adding that “residential schools are only one example of systemic, intergenerational injustices inflicted upon indigenous communities throughout Canada.
“However we measure a person’s opportunity and security in life,” she continued, “a disturbing gap exists between the indigenous and nonindigenous population.”
The latest illustration of that gap comes by way of a disturbing case reported Tuesday by the Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne. Ottawa psychiatrist Dr. Elena Shurshilova told Payne about an indigenous youth who was poorly treated at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre after a serious mental health episode. The hospital wanted to discharge him, the doctor alleges, even though he had been cutting himself, hearing voices and had tried to overdose on cough medicine. The 16-year-old’s mother had committed suicide when the boy was seven, so there was reason to pay special attention to him.
Instead, the psychiatrist says, the youth was treated rudely, with one hospital worker even leaving his food tray on the floor. In the end, he was transferred to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
What went wrong at the Peterborough hospital? That’s being investigated; in complex mental health cases, answers are rarely easy. But Shurshilova, for one, says there is a general pattern of young aboriginals not getting the respect or treatment they need.
Treating troubled indigenous youth is difficult everywhere in Ontario. CHEO itself has learned lessons about being culturally sensitive to indigenous patients through a program it runs on Baffin Island. It’s also involved in a pilot project on Tele-mental health with Cornwall’s hospital to assist in places that don’t have its level of mental health expertise. Still, even at CHEO, there are no specific staff training programs on First Nations mental health. Basic mental health services for youth in general are “desperately underfunded,” one CHEO official told the Citizen.
Amid that stark reality, indigenous youth still face much higher suicide rates than other young Canadians. In April, the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat declared a state of emergency after 11 residents attempted suicide in a single 24-hour period. Both the federal and Ontario governments pledged more help, and Ontario recently announced $222 million over three years to boost First Nations health care.
But as the Peterborough case appears to show, even in the populous south aboriginals may not get the same treatment or courtesy as other Canadians. In a mental health system that is already challenged, they continue to slip through the cracks. Apologies for historic wrongs don’t guarantee compassion today.