Mental Health Resources

FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES PLEASE DIAL 9-1-1
Learn more about mental illness and substance use disorders here. ​

Helplines

Suicide Prevention Service
Mental Wellness Counselling Team Same Day Service (Maamwesying/N'Minoeyaa)
Hope for Wellness Help Line (Indigenous geared)​
Kids Help Phone (Youth in distress and crisis)
Your Community Assistance Program
​(Anishinabek Nation First Nation members)
The National Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line
(Available to former students of Indian Residential Schools and their family members)
The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Crisis Line
Where to start
Some suggestions of where to start looking for support in your area are:
Mental health counselling
​Trained healthcare workers (like psychologists and social workers) who are approved by the government and Indigenous Services Canada can provide mental health counseling. They help Status First Nations and Recognized Inuit through the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program. Also, they can help anyone in Canada, including former students of Indian Residential Schools and Federal Indian Day Schools, and people impacted by Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

You can get more information by contacting an Indigenous Services Canada regional office or the ON First Nations Health Authority.
sTIGMA
  • In a 2019 survey of working Canadians: *
    • 75% of respondents said they would be reluctant – or would refuse – to disclose a mental illness to an employer or co-worker.
    • Respondents were nearly 3 times less likely to want to disclose a mental illness like depression than a physical one like cancer.
    • Top reasons for this reluctance were:
      • the belief that there is stigma around mental illness,
      • not wanting to be treated differently or judged, and
      • being afraid of negative consequences, such as losing one’s job.
    • However, 76% of respondents stated that they themselves would be completely comfortable with and supportive of a colleague with a mental illness.
* Ipsos (2019). Mental illnesses increasingly recognized as disability, but stigma persists. Retrieved from https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/mental-illness-increasingly-recognized-as-disability
To learn more facts and statistics click here.