Crisis line gets double the number of calls for help after Pope's apology
Crisis line gets double the number of calls for help after Pope's apology
Edmonton -
People who provide mental health support across the country have been significantly busier helping those with trauma after Pope Francis arrived in Canada and apologized for evil committed by members of the Catholic Church.
"As soon as we set up, before the Pope made his first address on Monday, we had seen about 125 people come to us in Maskwacis," said Nola Jeffrey, executive director of Tsow-Tun Le Lum Society, a substance abuse and trauma help centre that offers traditional and cultural treatment in Lantzville, B.C.
Jeffrey and her team of elders, survivors and people living with intergenerational trauma were invited by B.C.'s First Nations Health Authority and organizers of the papal visit to come to Alberta to provide support as the Pope apologized, for the first time in Canada, in front of residential school survivors and their families in Maskwacis, Alta., south of Edmonton.
"After (the apology), people just came in droves to us," Jeffrey said. "We didn't leave until the last person that wanted help was finished."
Indigenous Services Canada said the federal government's 24-hour crisis support line has received double the number of callers it usually gets since the Pope arrived for his penitential visit this week.
"The crisis lines are receiving calls from across the country," Kyle Fournier, a spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada, said in an email Thursday.
"Callers to the crisis lines are expressing a range of different emotions. For some, the Pope’s visit and apology may be healing and, for others, it may be triggering. Discussions about the harmful legacy of residential schools are important and can also be difficult for many."
On average, Fournier said The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line received 121 calls a day since January 2022.
But the day the Pope apologized for the cultural destruction and forced assimilation of Indigenous people, the number of callers jumped to 277. The next day, the crisis line received 244 calls.
Fournier said in Alberta, 300 additional mental wellness and cultural support workers were asked to be at papal events. Sixty workers have been asked to be in Quebec and 40 mental health workers are to be on-site in Iqaluit for the papal visit, eight of whom are clinical counsellors.
For the Pope's visit to Alberta, Jeffrey said she drove from B.C. carrying traditional medicines, including cedar and spruce branches, which people brush themselves with to release negative energy.
Many people also approached Jeffrey to use cold water to wash the tears off their faces, which is done traditionally four times. The water helps with balancing emotions and grounding people.
"The first wash is to honour the Creator, the second wash is in honour of their ancestors, the third wash is to honour their territory and the final wash is when I always say, "This is the most important wash to honour a beautiful and precious you.'"
Jeffery said her team didn't turn anyone away.
"We even had a clergy come to us and the guy that was in charge of security had become depressed and came for help," she said.
The next day, she said, she stayed past midnight with her team in Lac Ste. Anne, northwest of Edmonton, after the Pope participated in a sacred pilgrimage. Jeffrey said many people there also needed help.
She said Canadians need to think about how those who can't let go of their pain can get support for the days, weeks and years to come.
"There's a teaching that it takes seven generations to let go of trauma and so we're just at the tip of this," she said. "My hope is that we can help our people," she added through tears.
"The Pope didn't talk about how the children were raped, beaten, shamed, starved and how they were experimented on. We need to make our people feel good about themselves. So many of our people are dying."
Fournier said access to trauma-informed cultural and emotional support services, as well as professional mental health counselling, will continue to be available through the federal government's Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program.
"Community-based supports vary from community to community and can include elder services, traditional healers, Indigenous health support providers and peer counsellors. Professional mental health counselling is also available through this program."
Jeffrey said Indigenous people thrived for thousands of years before colonization.
"Colonization is just a blip in our history," she said. "It's a painful blip, but I know that we can come out of that and be strong and thrive again."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 29, 2022.
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
___
If you are a former residential school survivor in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
Hundreds of American firefighters have recently arrived in Canada to help battle wildfires and more are on the way, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday.
An official recommendation to wear a mask to protect yourself from wildfire smoke is being echoed by health experts as plumes of smoke make their way across parts of Canada, causing poor air quality.
Photos show smoke-filled skies in cities across Canada and the U.S. as air quality warnings were issued in wake of the hundreds of wildfires from Quebec and Ontario.
As forest fires rage across the country, experts are sounding the alarm over the physical and psychological impacts of the wildfires and saying that they pose a serious public health issue, which individuals and governments need to acknowledge and act upon.
With the latest hike bringing Canada's key interest rates to levels not seen since 2001, one mortgage broker is warning that it may be 'the last straw' for some homeowners with variable mortgages.
Canadians are twice as likely to support a formal inquiry into foreign interference, as opposed to public hearings, according to new polling from Nanos Research for CTV News.
It's been a busy, tumultuous few days for Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex as he took his place on the witness stand in his trial against the Mirror Group Newspapers. Here are royal commentator Afua Hagan's top takeaways from his two-day grilling.
The man who was found not criminally responsible in the stabbing deaths of five people at a house party in Brentwood more than nine years ago is seeking more freedoms.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is showing no interest in compromising with Meta and Google over a Liberal bill that would make them pay for Canadian journalism that helps the companies generate revenue.
Post tropical storm Fiona showed how quickly Canadians can be displaced by climate change. W5 looks into whether more people living in vulnerable areas will have to consider moving in the years to come.
Convicted murderer Daniel Jolivet, in prison for the past 30 years, has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. W5 reviews the evidence he painstakingly assembled while behind bars.
W5 Producer Shelley Ayres explains how she was in awe to meet what the Guinness Book of World Record's has named the World's Tallest Teenager, a 17-year-old from Quebec who plays for Team Canada.
CTV W5 investigates what authorities knew about plans to smuggle cocaine out of the Dominican Republic on a Toronto-bound Pivot Airlines flight. The airline's crew is demanding justice following their eight-month detention.
Gordie Sampson has written hit songs for some of the biggest names in country music, including Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan. CTV W5 speaks with the Grammy winner from small-town Nova Scotia about his creative process.
Romance scams have always been around, but they got worse during the pandemic, and fraudsters continue to use social media and dating sites to find victims.
Environment Canada has issued a special air quality statement for Ottawa, with the air quality at 10+ "very high risk" Wednesday morning. Conditions improved in the afternoon.
Barrie city councillors got a shocking but not surprising reality check into the affordability challenges facing many residents looking to put a roof over their heads.
As the country faces hazy conditions due to out-of-control forest fires from coast to coast to coast, emergency crews in Simcoe County were kept busy with a fire Wednesday evening.
There's high levels of air pollution in Waterloo region and Wellington County as smoke plumes from wildfires burning in Quebec and northeastern Ontario continue to blow into the region, Environment Canada says.
Students at Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School in London, Ont. are being investigated after a video was posted online showing students tearing down a LGBTQ2S+ pride flag.
As wildfire smoke blankets Ontario and eastern U.S., causing hazardous air quality and hazy skies, smoke in the Forest City is expected to remain until at least Thursday night.
Since early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the Honk Mobile Parking App has offered two hours of free municipal parking in London’s core area business districts.
The body of a woman reported missing in January has been found by Windsor police and her mother is struggling with the confirmation that her daughter is gone.
In the wake of a first-degree murder charge being filed against a Michigan man for killing his estranged wife, a 36-year-old Windsor woman, the head of an emergency shelter for women and children says femicide is a growing problem in Windsor-Essex.
An Ontario man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Claudia Iacono, the daughter-in-law of Mafia associate Moreno Gallo, after she was gunned down at the wheel of her car in Montreal last month.
Quebec's wildfire season, which has forced thousands from their homes and left other communities on high alert, is the worst on record, officials said Wednesday,
It is still not safe for some evacuated residents whose houses were spared from wildfire damage to return home, officials from Halifax Regional Municipality and the District of Shelburne said.
The father of disabled teen from Fall River, N.S. is calling on all sides to get back to the bargaining table and put an end to the Halifax area CUPE educational support worker strike.
The closure of Fort Gibraltar following the collapse of an elevated walkway that sent 16 students and one teacher to hospital has left some couples scrambling to find a place to get married.
Calgary city council has reconsidered its decision to vote against recommendations made by an expert panel to address the city’s housing affordability crisis.
Police say a man on a mobility scooter has life-altering injuries after he was struck by a vehicle in a northeast Calgary intersection on Wednesday evening.
The Archdiocese of Edmonton will spend $3.2 million on reconciliation initiatives with First Nations, Métis and Inuit people in the Alberta capital region.
Drivers are being asked to find another way or prepare for delays on the Henday this weekend, because crews need to close a bridge over the North Saskatchewan River.
A human-caused wildfire on the Lower Mainland has grown to an estimated 800 hectares and continues to burn out of control Wednesday, according to the BC Wildfire Service.
Rental housing advocates interrupted an announcement by B.C.'s housing minister in Vancouver Wednesday morning to object to the provincial government's response to the affordability crisis.
Advances in artificial intelligence means software can generate accurate voice clones that sound just like the real thing, but that's putting some actors in a precarious position, including Vancouver's Bill Newton.
Canadians are twice as likely to support a formal inquiry into foreign interference, as opposed to public hearings, according to new polling from Nanos Research for CTV News.
Hazy skies tinged with an eery yellow glow greeted millions of Canadians in Quebec and Ontario again Wednesday as the smoke from hundreds of wildfires continued to cause air quality warnings in Canada's most populated corridor. In a bizarre twist of fate, on a day when air quality was among the worst the country has ever seen, it was national Clean Air Day in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is showing no interest in compromising with Meta and Google over a Liberal bill that would make them pay for Canadian journalism that helps the companies generate revenue.
As forest fires rage across the country, experts are sounding the alarm over the physical and psychological impacts of the wildfires and saying that they pose a serious public health issue, which individuals and governments need to acknowledge and act upon.
Being a 'sleep procrastinator' might not only make you grumpy the next day, it can put your health at risk. A sleep expert shares tips for making sure bedtime is shut-eye time.
Two people died in what officials believe was a mass fentanyl overdose over the weekend involving five people in a hotel room in the Hawaii tourist mecca of Waikiki.
The James Webb Space Telescope set its sights on a galaxy 20 million light-years away, capturing a dazzling star-forming galaxy in images streaked with the signature of passing asteroids.
Reporters are a skeptical bunch, so it was unusual to hear so many of them raving about their firsthand experience with Apple's next Big Thing: the high-priced headset called Vision Pro, a device infused with totally virtual reality as well as augmented reality that projects digital images on top of real-world settings.
As artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT offer new tools for creativity and content creation, one company is using AI-powered software in tandem with classic literature in a way you might not expect.
An actor known for his roles on the comedy television shows "Bob's Burgers" and "Mr. Show with Bob and David" was arrested Wednesday on charges that he joined a mob of Donald Trump supporters in confronting police officers during the U.S. Capitol riot, court records show.
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released the first episode of his new show on Twitter on Tuesday, weeks after being taken off the air by the network following a damaging defamation lawsuit over false claims of election fraud.
With the latest hike bringing Canada's key interest rates to levels not seen since 2001, one mortgage broker is warning that it may be 'the last straw' for some homeowners with variable mortgages.
In a good month, Celina Chanthanouvong has about US$200 left after rent, groceries and car insurance. That doesn't factor in her student loans, which have been on hold since the start of the pandemic and are estimated to cost US$300 a month. The pause in repayment has been a lifeline keeping the 25-year-old afloat.
Montana became the first state in the U.S. to enact a complete ban on TikTok on Wednesday when Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a measure that's more sweeping than any other state's attempts to curtail the social media app, which is owned by a Chinese tech company.
Years ago, when my now-grown daughter Justine was a toddler, we visited a U-pick farm where she plucked plump, ripe strawberries from a field of sprawling plants. Some made it into the basket on that sunny June day; others went directly into her mouth.
Brittney Griner had a Texas homecoming, in private, out at dinner and on the court with the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA star's home state six months after her release from a Russian prison.
Pinch-hitter Alejandro Kirk singled in the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, Bo Bichette and Brandon Belt hit solo home runs and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Houston Astros 3-2 Wednesday night.
With the stench of smoke permeating Yankee Stadium and wafting through its walkways, Major League Baseball postponed games in New York and Philadelphia on Wednesday night because of poor air quality caused by Canadian wildfires.
Insurance industry group Equite Association says vehicle theft in multiple provinces surged last year. Vehicle theft was up by 50 per cent in Quebec year over year, by 48.3 per cent in Ontario, by 34.5 per cent in Atlantic Canada and by 18.3 per cent in Alberta.
Ontario has committed to paying a third of the cost to save a $5-billion electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor, Ont., premier Doug Ford said Thursday.
Former Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone on Tuesday formally pleaded not guilty to a fraud charge over his alleged failure to declare millions of dollars held in a trust in Singapore to Britain's government.
