Preventing Mental Illness And Substance Abuse Found Among...

In interpreting the significance of the disproportionately high rates of mental illness and substance abuse found amongst Canada’s First Nations communities, it is critical to recognize that these groups have been long marginalized, and typically live in remote areas bereft of sophisticated and large-scale health service facilities (Gone Trimble, 2012). With this reality in mind, the implications of the statistics and analyses presented above demonstrate that a very significant degree of institutionalized oppression has served to bring about the contemporary condition of First Nations communities in relation to mental health. Given that the information presented above points to a highly significant and disproportionate health burden†¦show more content†¦In the second instance, and in a more systematic fashion, it is critical that Canada work to bring about anti-poverty endeavors to improve the quality of life of First Nations. In this regard, Gone (2013) proposes tha t because much of the poverty which runs rampant in First Nations communities is the product of decades of isolation and abuse by the Canadian government, it is critical that the latter engage in far more significant poverty alleviation programs, in line with CHNC (2011)’s standard of health restoration, throughout the country’s First Nations communities all the while enhancing the funding which it provides to healthcare institutions within these communities. In combining these two solutions, it thus becomes possible to attack the problems associated with disproportionately high mental health pathologies in these communities from all available angles. Combining these two interventions, the goal is thus to shift First Nations community members out of the poverty and other factors serving to perpetuate their oppression all the while bringing about additional resources to bear as it pertains to dealing with the