‘We don’t feel seen’
Health P.E.I. promises change, while advocates, audience argue system needs reform
Members of Prince Edward Island’s queer community expressed disappointment and disillusionment with the mental health system at a recent Pride Festival panel discussion at the Delta Hotel in Charlottetown.
Much of the discussion on July 19 involved back and forth between executives from Health P.E.I. and members of the queer community over the need for reforms or for more radical change. About 40 people attended the event, one of four Pride Talks set for Pride Week.
Moderator Alice Curitz summed up the sentiment of many 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
“We don’t feel that we can trust these systems to actually take care of us. We don’t feel safe; we don’t feel seen. We feel very much that, if we show up, we’re going to be stigmatized and judged in some way.”
She also said the queer community has always taken care of itself, and so the community likes to keep things within.
This gap between community and service was one of the underlying themes of issues discussed throughout the night.
INSIDE THE SYSTEM
Pride Talk #1 featured two representatives from Health P.E.I., Joanne Donahoe, executive director of mental health and addictions at Health P.E.I., and Lisa Thibeau, assistant deputy minister of mental wellness.
Curitz challenged them to help reconcile with 2SLGBTQIA+ people.
“What work will you do to bridge some of that? How will you show that it is safe to engage with this system?”
Both said they were eager to listen and learn and committed to continued dialogue with the queer community.
“Am I doing enough? Probably not,” Donahoe said. “I am committing to do my best — until it hurts.”
She also explained the whole system is undergoing a review of best practices, along with adding some new programs and infrastructure. Ensuring these new spaces are safe for marginalized communities is why they’re consulting the public, she said.
“(We are) working with our communities to see — are they what people need for all Islanders, but for your community specifically.”
Thibeau added Health P.E.I. is offering some day programs and an addictions program that is three weeks long, along with a new building planned to open in January.
“Part of that community first (approach) is we want people to be close to home, close to their supports.”
The other panelists were mental health advocates Treena Smith and Jay Gallant. Smith pushed back against the idea that changing the system is enough.
STEPPING OUTSIDE
“The whole thing needs to explode and we really need to rethink the way systems work.”
She argued that traditional systems just don’t work for the queer community, noting problems with rigid intake checkboxes and binary IT programs.
Instead of trying to make people fit a model of wellness, Smith talked about peer support and intergenerational mentors.
“The one thing I have learned, working in mental health for 30 years, most of the time what we need is someone to have a tea with us and sit down and listen and be compassionate and to have the knowledge to know that we don’t know everything.”
Members of the audience took Smith’s critique of systems a step further, arguing the root systemic of problems are prejudices like white supremacy and patriarchy.
“You know, Joanne, you have this plan, Health P.E.I. has this plan — it’s still within this framework,” one said. “I know this conversation is still going, but I want to see more — more participation, more community involvement.”
When The Guardian asked Thibeau and Donahoe directly about how they will be accountable, they both said it would be about commitment, internal education, ongoing engagement with those impacted and more concrete things like data and surveys.
To achieve real change, though, Curitz said those in power are going to have to make decisions they don’t like and which may go against their own interests.
“Are you willing to do the allyship work of saying, wow, this doesn’t serve me at all, in fact it removes service from me, but it gives better service and more service to other people out there that really need it?”