Six-year-old Chenille Tomagatick visits a relative’s grave at a cemetery in the northern Ontario First Nations reserve in Attawapiskat, Ont., on Tuesday, April 19, 2016. The James Bay community of 2,000 is under a state of emergency due to a spike in youth suicide attempts.

Six-year-old Chenille Tomagatick visits a relative’s grave at a cemetery in the northern Ontario First Nations reserve in Attawapiskat, Ont., on Tuesday, April 19, 2016. Suicide, which runs twice the national rate among Indigenous people on average, is a very big problem in some communities and almost unknown in others, where people seem remarkably resilient.
Photo Credit: PC / Nathan Denette

New guide aims to break stereotypes in stories on mental health in Indigenous communities

Canadian reporters working on stories involving Indigenous mental health issues are getting some much-needed guidance and advice from seasoned journalists.

The Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma, an educational charity promoting physical and mental wellbeing of journalists, has added a new chapter to the second edition of its bilingual guide Mindset: Reporting on Mental Health / En-Tête : Reportage et Santé Mentale.

The chapter provides essential background and tips for journalists tackling the often misunderstood and underreported stories involving mental illness in Canada’s Indigenous communities, said Cliff Lonsdale, president of the forum.

(click to listen to the full interview with Cliff Lonsdale)

Listen
‘By journalists, for journalists’

“It’s written by other journalists so that it’s good journalistic advice and behind it all is the idea that we want people to go out and do good reporting in these areas,” Lonsdale said. “We don’t want them to shy away from these subjects.”

The 11-page chapter on Indigenous mental health issues is meant as a guide for general assignment reporters. It provides definitions and suggestions for effective coverage of a range of mental health issues.

Just like the issue of suicide, Indigenous mental health is an area that many reporters don’t feel comfortable talking about, Lonsdale said.

Providing context

“There is a lot of misinformation out there, which we try to put in a context,” Lonsdale said.

Providing context to news stories, going beyond the story the journalist is assigned to cover and looking at the bigger picture and system that created it, is one of the most important ingredients of good journalism, he said.

“For example we often hear about epidemics of suicide and I think if you were to walk onto the street and ask any member of the public, ‘Is suicide rampant among Indigenous communities?’ they’d say, ‘Yes, it is,’” Lonsdale said. “And in fact that’s not true. It is in some communities and it is almost unknown in others.”

Indigenous Canadians are not prone to suicide any more than the rest of the population, he said.

“You’ve got to look at the specifics of the case in front of you as you would in any other reporting, really,” Lonsdale said. “But the idea that we’re perpetuating stereotypes by continuously telling the same stories in the same story frames is quite worrying.”

The guide has a short checklist for journalist who are assigned to cover stories of Indigenous mental health.

➤ BEST PRACTICE CHECKLIST

✓ Get to know indigenous people.

✓ Appreciate diversity among indigenous communities.

✓ Avoid stereotypical story frames and assumptions.

✓ Focus on underlying systemic problems.

✓ Appreciate the impact of intergenerational trauma.

✓ Recognize the importance of traditional culture to self-determination and emotional resilience.

“Over and over again it says, ‘Look at the facts of the story!’” Lonsdale said. “Don’t just take this as a template but look at the facts in front of you and then go out and do your job. Your job is to report, your job is to unearth things. Your job is not to go and repeat what everybody else said before. Your job is to find out whether or not that’s an accurate depiction of reality.”

Categories: Health, Indigenous, Society
Tags: , ,

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.