By Saskatoon Tribal Council

Saskatoon Tribal Council Mobile Mental Health Bus

Sep 14, 2023 | 10:12 AM

Suicide is one of the leading cause of death for young people in Indigenous communities.

Experts agree that expanding access to care is crucial to ensuring mental health interventions can occur before they reach crisis levels.

Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation, in partnership with the Saskatoon Tribal Council (STC), Synergy 8 Community Builders, Medavie Health Services West and the Government of Saskatchewan, first launched the STC Mobile Mental Health Bus in 2021, which brings medical care, including mental health care, to children and youth in the seven First Nations communities that make up the STC.

In its first year of operation, Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation is reporting the bus saw 690 mental health patients through seven First Nations Communities.

In the spring of 2023, thanks in part to increased funding from Family of Support: Child and Youth Mental Health Initiative, the partnership launched two additional mobile mental health vans – tripling the vans’ capacity and enabling more Indigenous children and youth to receive critical care, faster.

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The Family of Support: Child and Youth Mental Health Initiative, in partnership with Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations, The Sobey Foundation and Empire Company Limited is focused on alleviating strain on hospitals to increase access and capacity for child and youth mental health support.

Nationally, since it began in 2020, Family of Support has seen more than 38,500 assessments completed, 49 new mental health treatment spaces opened across the country, and 75,974 patients served.

This year’s Family of Support annual campaign will kick off at Empire retail locations on September 14 until October 1. One hundred per cent of funds raised locally will stay local, going towards supporting child