Mental wellness in Canada's Aboriginal communities: striving toward reconciliation

With the presentation in Ottawa this spring of the report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada on Indian residential schools, the well-being of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples took centre stage for a few days in the media and minds of the Canadian public. The TRC documented key historical issues that have contributed to major mental health disparities in Canada’s indigenous population and pointed the way toward a larger process of national reconciliation.1 Because JPN is the official journal of the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology, a Canadian society devoted to understanding mental health and disease, we are taking the opportunity with this editorial to keep the discussion going forward by highlighting the mental wellness of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. We present a brief historical background of some of the factors recognized as contributing to current mental health challenges faced by the Aboriginal population and end with some suggestions on how mental health professionals might contribute to the reconciliation process. Although much of what we discuss in this editorial has been written before, it bears repeating to engage our readers. In addition to their importance in the Canadian context, many of the issues we discuss are relevant to indigenous peoples in other countries.