New Brunswick First Nations Mental Wellness Teams (MWT) and FPWC are co-leading and co-developing a training initiative to enhance cultural competency and safety within the New Brunswick mental health system. The project is called First Nations Knowledge and Evidence: Taking Action on Systemic Racism Through Cultural Safety. In short, it is referred to as the Anti-Indigenous Racism (AIR) Project.
This project focuses on professionals in the mental health system, specifically psychologists and social workers who provide clinical services to First Nations individuals, families, and communities. In addition, the project aims to support New Brunswick First Nation Communities to establish First Nation defined standards related to their readiness and suitability to embark on the journey toward being able to deliver those supports and services in a culturally safe manner.
The AIR project will consist of the early stages of co-designing culturally safe tools and resources targeted at the culture of the institutions, its leaders, and mental health professionals. Evaluation data collected throughout this project will inform the process of creating a helping bundle for participating First Nations that can be used to define the steps to cultural safety and to measure the cultural competency of organizations and practitioners.
The work for this project is supported by a Working Group of mental health experts directly involved in Indigenous mental health and wellness, a consultation group, and FPWC.
