Bringing awareness to mental health with Siksika Nation

Andrea Roberts
Times Intern

 

Siksika Nation is hosting their Mental Health Awareness week in the hopes of removing the stigma and bringing awareness to mental health issues that affect many of Albertans including a number of their members.
The Nation hosted a mental health awareness week several times before, and this year tackled issues of grief and loss, creating healthy relationships and dealing with anxiety.
“It is not only about mental health but ties into other areas like addictions, health problems, physical and emotional issues,” said Louise Doore, mental health coordinator for Siksika Health Services.
“We like to say that mental health is involved in those areas so it is kind of a broad issue that we are bringing the awareness to.”
The Awareness Walk, which kicked off the week-long event, was used to create a conversation amongst the community members on issues of mental health. Riders joined with the walkers, mostly consisting of children from the community as they made their way through the town. Once that was over a monument was unveiled in recognition of former residential school survivors.
Keynote speakers spoke out about their mental health problems during the rest of the week. One of these speakers was six-time Olympian Clare Hughes, a national spokesperson for Bell Canada’s Mental Health Initiative, who shared the story of her past struggles with depression.
Doore explained that the rest of the time was dedicated to mental health conferences which the community could attend, where a number of workshops and break-out sessions dealing with the aforementioned issues were available
The Siksika Mental Health Awareness week took place from May 2-6.