Visit the PDF below to read the MHW Summit Program and learn about all the keynote speeches and workshops. 

Summit Presentations

Breakout sessions will include:

• Taking Care of Each Other: Indigenous Perspectives on Harm Reduction Film Series and Panel Presentation - Taking Care of Each Other is an educational short film series featuring interviews with Indigenous harm reduction service providers in urban and rural communities. This session with include a screening of the films and a discussion on how to use the films to prompt conversations about substance use. A panel discussion with some of the film's participants will also be featured. Presenters: Andrea Medley, Indigenous Wellness Educato, FNHA; Len Pierre, Indigenous Cultural Wellness Designer, FNHA

• Confident Parents: Thriving Kids – This family-focused, phone-based coaching service is effective in reducing mild to moderate behavioural problems and promoting healthy child development in children ages 3-12. The program, traditionally delivered over the telephone by the Canadian Mental Health Association, is now being offered by trained Coaches in the Osoyoos Indian Band. Learn more about this program, the Osoyoos Indian Band's experience of the training, how the practitioners in this community have adapted the program to best suit their needs, and where the opportunity may lie for other communities across BC. Presenters: Jacki McPherson, Health Director, Osoyoos Indian Band; Tara Wolff, Program Manager, CMHA BC Division

• Fraser Salish Call to Action on Suicide – First Nations in the Fraser Salish region are facing increasingly complex challenges with suicide and suicide ideation and are looking to lead collaboratively and restore community resiliency and capacity to care for one another. The First Nations Health Council Fraser Salish Regional Representatives prompted a "Call to Action on Suicide" and engaged Fraser Salish Chiefs and Health Directors to develop this action plan. A series of community and regional governance engagements informed a Call to Action. It sets out a shared vision for change, including a common understanding of the problem; and a joint approach to solving it through agreed-upon actions using shared measurement methods. Presenters: Jodie Millward, Regional Mental Wellness Advisor, FNHA; Lynn Ned, Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention & Mental Health Coordinator, Fraser Health; Laurie Edmundson, Regional Mental Wellness Advisor, FNHA

Other highlights include:

• Community Responses to Sexual Abuse with Chief Charlene Belleau, Esk'etemc First Nation

• Operationalizing Jordan's Principle in BC with Kinwa Bluesky, Consultant, Jordan's Principle, FNHA

• Addressing Trauma – a panel discussion moderated by Patricia Vickers, Director Mental Health and Wellness, FNHA

• FASD and Addictions: The Importance of Peers with a speaker from Whitecrow Village

• The Role of Elders in Supporting Mental Health and Wellness with Elder Roberta Price

• Land-based Healing with Unis'tot'en Healing Centre and the Qqs Projects Society, Heiltsuk First Nation