FSIN announces plans for wellness centre

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A new wellness centre is being developed by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) to address addictions-related problems within First Nations communities.

Reta Terry is senior information officer with FSIN's Department of Justice. She said plans for the centre stemmed directly from one of the recommendations coming out of the inquest into the death of Darcy Dean Ironchild. Ironchild died of a drug overdose last February, shortly after being released from police custody.

The inquest recommendation called for the province and Canada to fund a multi-cultural and interdisciplinary detoxification centre, Terry said.

"We've just decided to go a little farther."

The goal of the project, according to information provided by the FSIN Department of Justice, will be to develop a substance abuse centre with a larger scope than existing centres.

The planned centre will take a holistic approach to dealing with prevention and treatment of addictions, looking at the causes of the addictions, and not just the symptoms.

Plans for the centre include holding talking circles and offering personal development courses focusing on prevention. Family-centered counselling, wellness counselling, and education about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, as well as addictions therapy are also being proposed, as is developing drug treatment courts to deal with substance-related offences.

The planned centre is a pilot project, unique because of its "comprehensivity and its holistic focus," Terry said.

"We hope to have at least detoxification services and an operating alternative to drunk tanks, because that's our primary focus, by late summer. The rest of the services and programs will have to be developed on an ongoing basis as needs are assessed."

Although the FSIN has taken the lead in development of the wellness centre, other interested organizations are already getting involved in the project.

"The working committee is comprised of people from all walks of life. We've got people from the province, people from Saskatoon public health, people from education, the mayor's office is sending a representative from the City of Saskatoon, social services, everybody. We've got a lot of support from everybody. So it'll be First Nations led, but certainly not exclusively First Nations," Terry said.