From left, Elder Diane Longboat, Rob Wemigwans, MPP David Zimmer, MP Adam Vaughan, Dr. Renee Linklater, Councillor Mike Layton, MPP Han Dong, and Dr. Catherine Zahn.
“When men heal, they become kind men. When women heal, they become strong women. Families change, children change — the world changes,” says Diane Longboat, Elder with CAMH Aboriginal Services.
With those powerful words, CAMH opened its Ceremony Grounds in June 2016 and became the first Ontario hospital to operate an Aboriginal Sweat Lodge. Made possible by a generous $1-million gift from the Geoffrey H. Wood Foundation, the Ceremony Grounds also include a Sacred Fire and medicine garden, and enable patients to engage in therapy based on the values, beliefs and traditions of Aboriginal peoples. “We are making history in the health care system,” says Dr. Renee Linklater, Director of Aboriginal Engagement and Outreach at CAMH. “What we are doing here today will touch many, many lives for years to come.”
It’s just one of the ways CAMH is improving care for Aboriginal people. In March, CAMH expanded Project ECHO to include a focus on Indigenous people in remote areas of the province. Closely affiliated with the Medical Psychiatry Alliance, Project ECHO connects a multi-disciplinary team at CAMH with health professionals in remote communities using telepsychiatry technology. Through bi-weekly virtual meetings, best practices are shared with the remote communities that need them.
“It can be very isolating to work in those communities and the knowledge-sharing made possible through ECHO can be very helpful,” says Dr. Allison Crawford, Co-Chair of ECHO Ontario First Nations, Inuit and Métis Wellness at CAMH.
Dr. Linklater shares important considerations for trauma-informed approaches in the justice and trauma among marginalized populations. This is a key focus of her work at PSSP’s Aboriginal Engagement and Outreach.
The team brings its expertise to remote communities in person, too. In August 2016, Dr. Catherine Zahn, CAMH President & CEO; Lori Spadorcia, Vice-President of Communications & Partnerships; Dr. Linklater, and Caroline Recollet, Aboriginal Engagement Lead for the Northeast of CAMH’s Provincial System Support Program, visited communities as far north as the James Bay Coast to learn first-hand how CAMH could better serve them.
“This trip was critical to understanding the pertinent issues these communities face on a daily basis,” says Dr. Linklater.
CAMH is working with Indigenous experts across Ontario to create screening and assessment tools that are grounded in culture. To develop the Trauma-Informed Substance Use Screening and Assessment Tool, CAMH engaged with 14 development sites as well as the Métis Nation of Ontario, and received input on the tool structure and content from 200 participants across Ontario.
CAMH is expanding its cultural healing practices for its First Nations, Inuit and Métis clients and patients with the opening of a Sweat Lodge at our Queen Street site.
The CAMH Sweat Lodge
