Travel funding cut to residential school counselling program leaves clients without closure in N.W.T., Nunavut
Counsellors contracted under a federal program found out travel funding was being cut on Friday
Mental health counsellors who provide therapy to residential school survivors and their families in the N.W.T. and Nunavut are decrying Indigenous Services Canada’s (ISC) decision to stop reimbursing travel costs for both clients and service providers. They want in-person counselling to continue.
Counsellors contracted through the Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program were told back in April that refunds to travel costs to support in-person therapy were being put on hold, effectively pausing travel under the program.
Counsellors received the news there would no longer be funding available for it from ISC on Friday through an email some have shared with CBC.
“I just felt absolute sorrow for my clients,” said Raymond Pidzamecky, who has been a contracted counsellor under the program for 17 years. “I’m angry at the lack of an appropriate process.”
Over the years, Pidzamecky relied on travel reimbursements to visit clients in their home communities of Fort Simpson, Norman Wells, Yellowknife, Inuvik, Rankin Inlet, Kugluktuk and Naujaat.
The email he received Friday also confirms that providers can resume renewing their clients for more hours and take on new ones under the same program, which they were told to pause in late May.
However, without the ability to meet all clients in person, Pidzamecky and others say counselling will stop for many of their clients for whom virtual counselling is not a suitable alternative. He and others say the funding cut came suddenly, without consultation with mental health professionals contracted by the program, which has removed the possibility of closure for vulnerable clients.
Virtual counselling not a suitable alternative for many
The email to counsellors notes that counselling previously made possible by travel can continue to be approved as video or phone calls.
Pidzamecky said that is not a realistic option for many of his clients.
He said that he has about 60 clients under the program, but since travel stopped being an option in April, only three have opted for virtual counselling.
Some of his clients live in overcrowded homes without a quiet, private spot to do counselling for an hour, while others do not have access to reliable internet.
“I’m worried more about my young clients and my elders,” Pidzamecky said.
He said his young clients don’t all have data plans, and have to rely on other people’s phones or messages passed through local health centres to get in touch with him.
As for elders, he said some rely on translators and not all are comfortable dealing with internet issues.
Pidzamecky also said some details are lost in virtual care.
“When you’re actually with people and you see physical scars, when you see the signs of malnutrition, when you see the despair on their faces, their bodies, it has a tremendous impact on the way we view people and the way we service people,” he said.
No input from providers
Pidzamecky said as far as he is aware, people providing mental health counselling under the program were not consulted in the decision to suddenly put an end to travel reimbursements.
Jodi Kapicki, a licensed psychologist in Yellowknife who also provides counselling through the program for residential school survivors and their family members, said the same.
She said 10 to 12 of her clients have been relying on travel reimbursements to come to her in Yellowknife, and that she has been the one who had to inform them that they would no longer get their travel costs covered.
“Truthfully, I actually don’t even think that this should be my message to send,” she said. “I’m the person who is providing therapy for people who have had horrific experiences at the hands of government and churches, and I don’t want to be the one that is sharing [ISC’s] message.”
Kapicki said that removing the possibility of future reimbursed travel so abruptly takes away the chance to have meaningful closure with clients who are still in the process of healing.
She said that kind of closure would have been “incredibly important” to have.
Federal response
CBC requested an interview from Indigenous Services Canada but did not receive a response to its questions by deadline.
Prompted by a CBC reporter, Northwest Territories MP Rebecca Alty said Monday at a press conference that the issue has been raised to her by residents.
Alty is also the minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations.
“I will be working with my cabinet colleague to get further information and be able to share with residents,” she said. “It’s important that residents in the Northwest Territories are able to access the service.”
Former residential school students and their families can call the 24-hour National Indian Residential School Crisis Line toll free at 1-866-925-4419.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: “We still have a lot of healing to do with our fellow Canadians” – National Day for Truth and Reconciliation observed September 30 (new window), Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Truth and Reconciliation Commission should continue says Sami Parliament in Finland (new window), Eye on the Arctic
Greenland: Danish PM apologizes to Greenlanders taken to Denmark as children in 1950s (new window), Eye on the Arctic
Norway: Can cross-border cooperation help decolonize Sami-language education (new window), Eye on the Arctic
Sweden: Sami in Sweden start work on structure of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (new window), Eye on the Arctic
United States: Alaska reckons with missing data on murdered Indigenous women (new window), Alaska Public Media
