The Mental Wellness Forum held at the Canim Lake Band Community Centre on Oct. 9 had a good response and was an overall success.
It coincided with Mental Illness Awareness Week (MIAW) from Oct. 6 to12.
Canim Lake Band health administrator Sheila Dick said she was pleased to see about 45 people turn out for the event, including organizers and participants.
"What we're looking at in our region, the Secwepemc area, is trying to put more emphasis on mental wellness and substance use."
The issues of mental health and addiction are sensitive, so it's not always easy to talk about, Dick said, adding she is gratified to see many band members becoming more open in discussing these topics.
"I don't feel that it is stigmatized as much as it was when I started here. I don't know if I could have pulled this off a couple of years ago ... it was a subject people didn't really feel comfortable with."
She also got a lot of support for the forum from staff and band leaders, Dick added, toward its goal of fostering sobriety and mental wellness.
"The forum focused a lot on stress because it can lead to depression and other kinds of ailments."
Plenty of booths, door prizes, a lunch and a lot of information was provided to forum guests.
The Elders' booth was "really neat," Dick said, with many heritage crafts on display and free pouches of herbal Labrador (Indian) Tea, sage and medicinal bark for participants to take home.
She noted the band Elders get together weekly for various activities, including baking; seasonal crafts, which could aid stress and loneliness; joining students at the Eliza Archie Memorial School for cultural events; and fundraising.
They also enjoy an annual spa day, where they learn more about self-care, and visits with old friends from across British Columbia at the provincial Elders’ Gathering. Trips to other communities help promote pride and belonging, including visits to relatives in Secwepemc communities closer to home.
The forum's keynote presentation – Beyond the Blues – was made by Canadian Mental Health Association branch director Maggie Patterson-Dickey, offering guidance on mental health and addiction issues, and how to access resources. She was assisted by South Cariboo Health Centre community prevention worker Janine Friesen.
Cariboo Friendship Society Aboriginal wellness co-ordinator Mary Thomas, also a former Canim Lake Band health director, then talked about Aboriginal mental health.
Dick shared some of her own many experiences from her years spent at residential school and the effect it also had on her later life and mental wellness. She relayed some history of her grandparents and great-grandparents, and the devastating consequences of smallpox in Secwepemc communities. It is a presentation she also does upon request for Thompson Rivers University and the University of Northern British Columbia.
"We had a few younger people there whose parents may have gone to residential school, but never talked about it – because there are a lot of parents and grandparents who will not talk about it."
Experiences at residential school left many children feeling unwanted and unloved, she explained, with impacts that, even decades later, their sons and daughters may not understand.
Other activities included tracing an outline of a person's body on a large sheet of paper and then having participants of all ages write down what mental wellness means to them.
The many definitions of wellness varied from "sobriety" to "being with my grandchildren," Dick noted.
She explained there was also a big kite placed on the wall – corresponding to the MIAW symbol – which had small paper kites with names added to remember loved ones lost to suicide.
"It was an exhausting day, but we felt good about it. We felt satisfied we had done something, and I am hoping we did it in a gentle way. Because this is something that has to be approached very carefully."
The health administrator said she hopes to offer more events and resources in the realm of mental wellness and substance use. She noted this is one of the priorities of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Health Caucus, and the First Nations Health Authority also places much emphasis on these important and life-altering issues.