Strategy comes not a moment too soon [editorial]

There once was a public service announcement that ran on CFWE, a radio network owned by the Aboriginal Multi-Media Society, publishers of Windspeaker, that was designed to raise awareness of youth suicide in northern Alberta communities. This was in the early 1990s and musical warrior Buffy Sainte-Marie lent her voice to it.

“We need all the Indians we can get,” was the message listeners were left with ringing in their ears. Such a good message, don’t you think?

The recently called state of emergency in the small northern Ontario community of Neskantaga First Nation brought that PSA back to mind this month. Suicide has visited this community over and over during the past year. So overwhelmed were the healthy adults in the community that they were beyond coping, so they sent up a cry for immediate help.

With only 400 community members, half of whom are suffering addictions and a full two-thirds of those young people, it’s no wonder Neskantaga had reached the breaking point. Exhausted by it all, frustrated and concerned about the future, leadership is asking why it had to come to this. Where is Health Canada? Where are the resources?

Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister David Zimmer said Ottawa isn’t doing enough about substance abuse and poverty on reserve.
“It should just be in our hearts and our souls to tackle this and we need the federal government to work with us,” Zimmer said as Ontario worked out its emergency response plan, even though First Nations are a federal responsibility.

Why does it always take a crisis for response from the federal government? Why does a community have to declare a state of emergency for any action? In Attawapiskat, a state of emergency had to be declared on their housing situation before Ottawa thought to respond. Is this indicative of how the federal Conservative government manages the affairs of Canada, or just the needs of First Nations? Stomp one fire out, then wait for another to break out. It’s an inconceivably bad approach if this is the case.

It is not a mystery that some northern First Nations communities struggle mightily with prescription drug abuse. This problem did not just manifest itself, coming out of the blue to the surprise of all. A quick search of our own archives reveals that we covered the issue of prescription drug abuse a full eight years ago, focusing on the community of Constance Lake First Nation, talking about its battle with Percocet and Oxycontin addictions.
Fast forward to last year and Matawa First Nation leaders’ proposal for a $34 million strategy to curb prescription abuse on reserve.

Is this a case of our words falling on deaf ears—again? Well, at least a few have been listening.

On March 27 of this year, only a few short weeks ago, the Assembly of First Nations lauded a new National Strategy on Prescription Drug Abuse launched by the Canadian Centre of Substance Abuse.

The strategy is entitled “First Do No Harm: Responding to Canada’s Prescription Drug Crisis.” Its key action areas are prevention, education, treatment, monitoring and surveillance and enforcement. This is a pan-Canadian strategy, not Aboriginal-specific, but developed with the AFN and the National Native Addiction Partnership Foundation. The centre doesn’t get a lot of funding, according to their 2012 financials, so this is an area we’re watching for investment.

In a national survey between 2008-2010, First Nations reported that alcohol and drug use and abuse was the Number One challenge for community wellness faced by on-reserve communities (82.6 per cent of respondents), followed by housing (70.7 per cent) and employment (65.9 per cent). The same report cited psychological pain or trauma and associated prescription drug use as being linked to their experience in residential schools and child welfare.

In the strategy, it says that communities with higher than average percentages of drug addiction and chemical dependency have higher incidences of suicide, violent crimes, illegal activity and other forms of abuse. First Nations communities have reported epidemics of 43 per cent to as high as 85 per cent of the communities’ population addicted to opiates.

“The status quo simply cannot continue,” reads the strategy. “People are becoming addicted and many are dying. Their families and communities are suffering. Action must be taken — NOW.”

We agree. And as Buffy has reminded us, we do need all the Indians we can get.

We need all of you.

Windspeaker