On #BellLetsTalk Day, as part of the AFN effort to help support mental health all across Canada, National Chief Perry Bellegarde is joined by Dr Carol Hopkins to talk mental health and First Nations. They discuss why traditional First Nations healing and knowledge are a key component to helping people and communities overcome mental health challenges, the impact the pandemic has had on mental health and addiction and what needs to change.

Dr. Carol Hopkins is the Executive Director of the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation and a proud member of the Lenape First Nation in south-western Ontario. She has spent more than twenty years working in the field of First Nations addictions and mental health, with a special focus on the use of traditional knowledge and healing. She is a First Nations Representative to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs. And for her efforts, in 2018 she was appointed Officer of the Order of Canada.

For more information on the work of Thunderbird Partnership Foundation visit:

https://thunderbirdpf.org/

AFN Mental Health Resources:

Hope for Wellness Help Line:

• For crisis support and intervention please contact: 1-855-242-3310 or via chat at hopeforwellness.ca

For Indigenous Women and girls:

• Talk4Healing is accessible across Canada, it is free and culturally safe for Indigenous women.

Please contact: 1-855-554-HEAL (4325)

Assaulted Women’s Helpline:

• Contact 1-866-863-0511

For Children and Youth:

• Kids Help Phone is accessible 24/7 across Canada and offers telephone or texting supports.

 For telephone support, please contact: 1-800-668-6868.

 For texting support, please text CONNECT to 686868.

Native Youth Crisis Hotline:

• Offers 24/7 telephone support. Please contact, 1-877-209-1266

Online Resources for Youth:

• Culture for Life: http://cultureforlife.ca/

• Wise Practices: https://wisepractices.ca/

• Wapikoni Mobile: http://www.wapikoni.ca/home

• We Matter: https://wemattercampaign.org/

A big thanks goes out to the Red Dog Singers of Treaty 4 Territory in Saskatchewan for our theme song, Intertribal.

The Ahkameyimok Podcast is produced by David McGuffin of Explore Podcast Productions.