Healing Traditions : The Mental Health of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada

Laurence Kirmayer; Georges Henry Erasmus Georges Henry

Aboriginal peoples in Canada have diverse cultures but share common social and political challenges that have contributed to their experiences of health and illness. This collection addresses the origins of mental health and social problems and the emergence of culturally responsive approaches to services and health promotion. Healing Traditions is not a handbook of practice but a resource for thinking critically about current issues in the mental health of indigenous peoples. Cross-cutting themes include: the impact of colonialism, sedentarization, and forced assimilation; the importance of land for indigenous identity and an ecocentric self; and processes of healing and spirituality as sources of resilience.

epidemiology mental health canada ethnology indigenous peoples mental health services medicine, traditional community mental health services social identification mental healing indians, north american inuits cultural assimilation