I am a psychiatry resident at McGill University and a Diversity Leadership Fellow at American Psychiatric Association. Given my background as a family physician and an immigrant in North America, I have a special interest in the mental health and well-being of vulnerable populations, most notably, the indigenous people (my current area of focus this summer at the Centre for Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine). For this year’s International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, taking place every year on 9 August, I would like to write about how knowledge exchange can be a simple way of promoting the often overlooked mental health of indigenous people.
Mental health conditions are among the main causes of disability worldwide. Comparing their prevalence and burden with the existing state of care by health services reveals a huge treatment gap at approximately 50% in high-income countries, and up to 90% in low-income countries. Indigenous communities worldwide experience risk factors for mental health conditions more frequently than non-indigenous people in the same region. These risk factors include discrimination, conflict, trauma, the stresses of acculturation and dislocation, and other barriers to accessing health care. In addition, there are poorly adapted and fewer available services that address the ethnic, social and cultural specificities in their communities. These factors, unsurprisingly, make the treatment gap even larger in indigenous communities …