Immediate services needed in the DTES

Recommendation 18: An Indigenous Health and Wellness Centre in the DTES and Indigenous-run health programs that use Indigenous methods to address physical, mental, sexual, emotional, and spiritual harms. Also fund more mobile healthcare vans and community-based clinics, street nurses, and healthcare providers in the DTES.

Immediate services needed in the DTES

Recommendation 22: Guarantee a 24/7 Indigenous mental health and addictions counselling program that is low-barrier, drop-in based, available on demand, and includes overnight street-based counselling in the DTES. Also ensure long-term mental health and addiction services, ranging from prevention, early intervention, treatment, crisis care, home visits, and aftercare.

Recommendations to guarantee economic security for Indigenous women in the DTES

Employment security

Recommendation 78: Expand the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model for all employment support programs.

Recommendations to keep Indigenous families together in the DTES

Support Indigenous families

Recommendation 123: Guarantee free individualized support such as culturally appropriate parenting programs; detox on demand; and counselling for mothers with mental health diagnoses, learning disabilities, drug use dependence, and who are survivors of domestic violence.

Recommendations for Indigenous women’s wellness in the DTES

Culturally safe healthcare

Recommendation 184: An Indigenous Health and Wellness Centre in the DTES and more Indigenous run health programs that use Indigenous methods and medicines to address physical, mental, sexual, emotional, and spiritual harms.

Recommendations for Indigenous women’s wellness in the DTES

Culturally safe healthcare

Recommendation 187: Reframe mental health and addictions services so they mirror Indigenous women’s social and economic realities and aspirations towards healing.

Recommendations for Indigenous women’s wellness in the DTES

Culturally safe healthcare

Recommendation 197: Security guards and all emergency room healthcare providers and staff must receive mandatory training in cultural sensitivity, mental health, and de-escalation.

Recommendations for Indigenous women’s wellness in the DTES

Expanded health services

Recommendation 202: Ensure timely, culturally safe, and evidence-based mental health and addiction services in the DTES, ranging from prevention, early intervention, treatment, crisis care, home visits, and aftercare.

Recommendations for Indigenous women’s wellness in the DTES

Expanded health services

Recommendation 203: Guarantee a 24/7 mental health and addictions counselling program that is low-barrier, drop-in based, available on demand, and includes overnight street-based counselling in the DTES.

Recommendations for Indigenous women’s wellness in the DTES

Expanded health services

Recommendation 204: Declare the opioid crisis a national public health emergency that disproportionately impacts Indigenous women, and expand funding for immediate health-based solutions for the opioid crisis that focus on the specific needs of Indigenous women. This includes:

1. Full spectrum of recovery supports including immediate access to Indigenous women’s detox-on-demand and treatment centres.
2. Indigenous-run treatment centres that use culture as treatment with Indigenous healing methods and land-based practices.
3. More indoor overdose prevention sites and consumption sites, including culturally safe sites for Indigenous women only.
4. Decriminalization and access to safer drug supply.
5. Opioid-assisted therapy programs and full spectrum of substitution treatment options.
6. Longer-term funding for range of culturally safe treatment programs.
7. Provincial regulation and oversight over all recovery programs and facilities.