FNHA to Administer New $30 Million Mental Health and Wellness Fund

1/9/2019

I am pleased to let you know that the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA), as the operational partner of the new $30 million mental health and wellness fund, has released funding guidelines for BC First Nations. The fund supports Nations and aggregations of Nations to plan, design and deliver wholistic mental health and wellness services through a broader lens of social determinants of health.

The fund was activated by the Memorandum of Understanding: Tripartite Partnership to Improve Mental Health and Wellness Services and Achieve Progress on the Determinants of Health and Wellness signed by the Government of Canada, the Province of BC and the First Nations Health Council.

The fund offers flexible funding arrangements that will support you to align resources with your Nations' unique mental health and wellness plans and priorities.

It provides support for:

• Culture as a social determinant of health,

• Mental health as a building block for nation re-building,

• Integration in service design and delivery, and;

• Activities that address root causes

FNHA regional teams and other partners are available to support BC First Nations in developing their Statements of Readiness. Statements of Readiness will be accepted on an ongoing basis with funding disbursed over the next two years. The funding will be provided directly to Nations and communities as per the identified body (i.e., Nation, Tribal Council, etc.) in the Statement of Readiness. Nations and communities may choose to collaborate with others, such as a health service delivery organization, in the design and delivery of the plan. Provincial and federal partners/ service providers can also be involved in developing Statements of Readiness, planning and implementation as needed.

Information and documents including the funding guidelines, Frequently Asked Questions and Statement of Readiness template can be found at the FNHA website here

(http://www.fnha.ca/about/work-with-us/funding-opportunities

For further information, you can reach out by email to mhwmou@fnha.ca.

In health and wellness,
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Joe Gallagher, CEO


A Message from the First Nations Health Council:

On behalf of the First Nations Health Council, I am pleased to see the implementation of additional mental health resources for First Nations communities in British Columbia. This initiative started with a governance dialogue among the Province of BC, Canada and BC First Nations leadership, and has resulted in a commitment by the partners to take action on mental health and wellness.

Mental health and wellness has been named a priority in each of the five health regions of BC through the regional caucuses and regional health and wellness plans. The FNHC's advocacy in this area is a result of First Nations leadership in BC directing the conversation on their priorities.

The latest round of regional caucuses informed the creation of this implementation plan and the parameters that will enable communities to access these funds, without an onerous administrative burden.

This work also supports making progress in the area of the social determinants of health and our 10-year roadmap that continues to evolve and progress based on community direction. The FNHC will continue its advocacy work on behalf of First Nations communities in BC while respecting the First Nations Health Authority's service delivery role in the administration of this funding to ensure the separation of services and politics.  

Together we will make progress on mental health and wellness and the social determinants of health for healthy, self-determining and vibrant, BC First Nations children families and communities.

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Grand Chief Doug Kelly
Chair, First Nations Health Council