Project 467164

Mental health-related harms and suicide are significant public health crises among Indigenous populations in Canada. Poor mental health outcomes have been attributed to lasting impacts of colonization, ongoing marginalization, and extensive barriers to accessing mental health services. The Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program is a federally funded health program for First Nation and Inuit people that seeks to address disparities in access to care by offering health services, including mental health counselling, that are not otherwise covered through health, social, or private insurance programs. Despite growing uptake and increasing expenditures for the mental health counselling component of the NIHB program, there are currently no formal evaluations surrounding the thousands of mental health practitioners in the program or its overall efficacy. A critical step in assessing the NIHB program is to strengthen our understanding of who delivers services within the program. This analysis will elucidate NIHB mental health providers beliefs about suicide, perceived competence to assess suicide, and cultural competence surrounding Indigenous populations. Using secondary data from a nationwide survey administered to NIHB mental health providers, multivariate regression analyses will be used to explore each outcome and related characteristics. This analysis will serve as the first independent endeavour to assess the mental health counselling component of the NIHB program through developing an understanding of the frontline providers who implement counselling services. There are lasting implications of this project for both policy and practice, including identifying gaps in service delivery and clarifying areas where more training or education is needed.