Table 5 Focus on children and youth (Theme 4)

• Foster healthy childhood development which begins during pregnancy and infancy

• Engage the parents in the school and in their child’s learning

• Involve Elders as mentors in the schools to support Indigenous school-aged children

• Focus on specialized counselling services for children and youth in the schools and in communities

• Train youth to be peer-mentors in the schools or in their communities

Participant Quotes

“We talk about supporting early childhood development…[but] we forget that their brains are changing [like] rapid fire in their teen years…It’s really important that we sustain their development throughout the years and bring in the knowledge and expertise of Elders in the school to support them [youth]…we need to provide supports throughout the lifespan.”

“So when you experience relationship violence or gender-based violence…and we know that if youth are experiencing violence then they are likely going to continue that violent behavior when they’re older. So we need to do a better job at intervening and creating supports and interventions so that youth who experience violence or trauma within personal relationships are not going to go on and continue those cycles of violence later in life.”

“Education must start at home. Families,

teach their children the culture, how to live, how to respect, how to treat others.”

“It’s going back to that holistic model of health…we need to start with the families and the parents, that where you can do the best prevention and to create healthy children. It has to start in our communities and our homes, because that’s where the wisdom and the knowledge is.”

“We don’t have enough pediatric and youth mental health services, we simply don’t…it’s a greater challenge to get them to come to the rural areas, especially those specialized services”