Mental health first aid training for Treaty #3

Shooniyaa Wa-Biitong has received a Bell Let’s Talk mental health initiative grant to provide training for more than 400 Treaty #3 frontline staff.
The $50,000 Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund grant will “fund mental health first aid training for frontline staff,” said April Medwechuk, project manager with Shooniyaa Wa-Biitong. “Anyone that is dealing directly one-to-one with a client.”
Shooniyaa Wa-Biitong has partnered with Bimose Tribal Council, Kenora Chiefs Advisory and other local Aboriginal agencies to train a variety of frontline staff, including teachers, community health representatives, National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program workers, prevention workers, employment workers and welfare staff in six First Nation communities and 11 Treaty #3 organizations.
“Kenora Chiefs Advisory has certified trainers, so they have contributed in kind a trainer at no cost,” Medwechuk said. “Bimose will be training their own trainers to become certified ... and they will be training 300 of their staff, which includes principals, teachers, education assistants, everyone in their school system.”
The Bell Let’s Talk grant will cover the purchase of training manuals and a trainer for the recognized program put out by the Mental Health Commission of Canada.
“Bell is extremely pleased to lend our support to Shooniyaa Wa-Biitong and the 60 other community organizations across the country that are part of the Bell Let’s Talk Community Fund this year,” said Mary Deacon, chair of the Bell mental health initiative. “Each of these groups is truly making a difference at the grassroots level. We’re very proud to be helping them provide much needed resources to enhance mental health services and programs for those affected by mental illness.”
Medwechuk said many of the people who will be trained are those who see mental health issues first hand while performing their jobs.
“So they’re (being) trained to recognize it and refer to the appropriate service,” Medwechuk said. “A lot of times workers will say ‘I know something is off, but I don’t know what it is, I don’t know how to say it to the person and I don’t know where to go for help.’ Those are the types of things it is going to address.”
The Shooniyaa Wa-Biitong project will run from October 2012 to October 2013.
Bell launched the five-year Let’s Talk charitable program in 2010 based on four action pillars: anti-stigma, care and access, research, and workplace best practices.
The Let’s Talk initiative is designed to support a wide range of programs to enhance awareness, understanding and treatment of mental illness and promote access to care and research across the country.