N.B. response to First Nations youth mental health recommendations 'profoundly underwhelming': advocate

The New Brunswick government has done little to nothing on recommendations to improve the health of First Nations youth, according to the province’s child, youth and seniors’ advocate.

In an update Monday, Kelly Lamrock says “there has not been a lot of progress” on the 2021 report “No Child Left Behind.”

The report from three years ago recommends a nation-to-nation review of gaps in Indigenous youth mental health services, as well as transparency on the province's spending for First Nations youth mental health.

The report’s 13 recommendations are categorized into 20 monitorable recommendations, with eight found to be “somewhat implemented” and 12 having “no action taken.”

“The crisis is real and the response at this point, to be blunt, has been profoundly underwhelming,” says Lamrock. “At some point one either accepts that we need a distinct process to deal with the crisis in First Nations communities or we do not, and that dividing line I think really animates the report. My submission respectfully to the legislature is that we do, and we have not had one.”

Lamrock says a set of transitional recommendations from Monday’s update “will hopefully restart this process with good faith and trust and rebuild between the parties.”

“I can tell you that anybody who thinks you can simply attack this problem by saying, ‘take the strategy for the whole province and add Aboriginal people,’ probably has not reflected long enough on the very unique causes and the very unique challenges in a lot of First Nations communities.”

Transitional recommendations from Monday’s update includes having a dedicated line item in the upcoming provincial budget for First Nations mental health. In statements Monday, Minister responsible for Addictions and Mental Health Services Rob McKee and Minister of Indigenous Affairs Keith Chiasson don’t make any specific commitment to that recommendation.

McKee says the implementation of other specific transitional recommendations is underway, including an invitation to First Nations leaders to create a bilateral forum to achieve “culturally safe and equitable health care for Indigenous people in New Brunswick.”

Former Lieutenant Governor Graydon Nicholas, who attended Monday’s update at the provincial legislature, says there’s been decades of transfer payments meant for First Nations initiatives that never arrived in those communities.

“Our money has not been spent for our people, and that’s not right,” says Nicholas.

Roxanne Sappier, chair of the First Nations Advisory Council, says she’s optimistic about the report’s recommendations going forward with a change in the provincial government this past fall.

“I think we’re hopeful that we’re going to see some progress moving forward now, where perhaps we weren’t making the gains, we were hoping for with the last government,” says Sappier.

The official opposition’s critic for mental health and addictions says he’s unsure why there was limited to no action recorded from the previous Progressive Conservative government.

"I wouldn't want to guess the answers to things that are sometimes complicated,” says Rob Weir, who was first elected a PC MLA in October’s election. “I will guarantee that moving forward I will be an advocate for paying attention to the issues we’re having and solving the problems moving forward."

Lamrock made comment on Monday about the difficulty his office had in getting clear answers from government departments on the status of recommendations.

“That’s something we’ll work on,” says Lamrock.

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