Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS) is a non-profit health and wellness organization centred around the empowerment of Indigenous peoples, and asserting jurisdiction over child welfare. Among its many services, it provides support for people living with addiction. We provide these services to youth, families, and adults, through our Addictions Recovery Program.
To mark Addictions Awareness Week, which takes place from November 21-27, the agency’s youth services team is operating a campaign called #BreakTheStigma that is intended to shed light on a topic that is often not talked about – youth who are struggling with addictions. The campaign exemplifies CSFS’s commitment to serving youth and those who are struggling to stay well. The campaign includes stories of those with lived experience, as well as red branded wristbands, which serve as a reminder to accept your peers, friends, and family members who battle addiction. It is also a reminder for those currently struggling that it is OK to get help.
The mental health impacts of the pandemic are well-documented. In order to help Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth, it is crucial that CSFS tackles this problem by breaking the stigma around addictions and getting help. Additionally, and now more than ever, we must highlight the solutions-based approach that CSFS is committed to with the planned Tachick Lake Healing and Treatment Centre.
CSFS Chiefs recently passed a formal resolution calling, once again, on both B.C. and Canada to fulfil their responsibilities and fully fund the capital costs of the healing and treatment centre. As CSFS Board President and Cheslatta Carrier Nation Chief Corrina Leween has stated, we “can’t keep begging” for financial support to address the multiple crises we are facing in our region that include toxic drug overdoses, COVID-19
and homelessness.