Muslim Community Members Help Improve 24/7 Mental Health and Substance Use Crisis Response in Ottawa In Person Consultation

The Ottawa Guiding Council for Mental Health and Addictions is organizing two consultations with Muslim community members to hear from you about what you think should change for a better response to mental health and substance use crises in Ottawa.

We are working to identify specific options and recommendations that respond to the needs of the community.

Both sessions will be facilitated by Chelby Daigle, an advocate for Muslims living with mental illness.

There is an in person consultation for Muslim community members on November 14, to attend register here

A Meal will be provided

Participants will receive an honorarium of $50 per person.

We know as an Ottawa community we can do better.

The Ottawa Guiding Council for Mental Health and Addictions is an alliance of Ottawa based community, health and service networks who believe we can take better care of each other and build a stronger community that cares for each other.

2021 was a call for action in our City. We were asked to deeply examine our responses to community members experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.

The starting point of our work was the convergence of several situations that magnified some of the weaknesses in our current mental health and substance use systems and recognized the need to place a diversity, race, and inclusion lens on all these systems.

The key events included:

• Recent Ottawa Police Service interventions in incidents involving community members, particularly Indigenous and Black members experiencing a mental health crisis, that resulted in injury or their deaths.
• Consistent chronic underfunding of mental health and substance use services and programs.
• A disproportionate and inappropriate reliance on police services to respond to the mental health and substance use crises.
• The mobilization of the Black Lives Matter movement internationally that focused attention on the relationship between police and racialized communities, and locally the work of Justice for Abdi Coalition.
• Chronic gaps in appropriate programs, services, and response strategies for Indigenous, Black and racialized community members.
• A universal recognition that we can do better.