Samira Karsiem, Jessy Dame, William Flett August 15, 2023 • 4 Min Read
MindMapBC can help folks find affirming mental health support, but mental health only makes up one part of a person’s well-being. For Indigenous communities, personal well-being includes mind, body, and spirit, and all of these aspects are interconnected. The Medicine Bundle Project, part of the Two-Spirit Program at the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC), was created by and for 2S/LGBTQ+ Indigenous community members, and offers a holistic and culturally relevant option for sexual health...
Samira Karsiem and Brittany Clark-Wakefield July 11, 2023 • 7 Min Read
MindMapBC helps people find 2S/LGBTQ+ affirming mental health care. For Indigenous folks, finding affirming care that is also culturally relevant can be important as well. Nanki Nezulne (Our Two Spirits) is a program based at Carrier Sekani Family Services (CSFS) focused on 2S/LGBTQ+ health and wellness, supporting the 11 Membered Nations that CSFS serves and with community collaboration and governance. Nanki Nezulne services include: Individual counselling 2S/LGBTQ+ education for family and...
Two-Spirit Team at The Community-Based Research Centre, and the Two-Spirit Dry Lab March 21, 2023 • 4 Min Read
Thank you to our friends at CBRC’s Two-Spirit program and the Two-Spirit Dry Lab - Jessy Dame, Martin Moberg, and Harlan Pruden - for allowing us to share this article and work with MindMapBC visitors. The MindMapBC team is proud to join the call-to-action led by the Two-Spirit Program at the Community-Based Research Centre, to proclaim March 20th - spring equinox - as Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQIA+ Celebration and Awareness Day across Turtle Island! Two-Spirit and Indigenous LGBTQIA+...
Martha Gumprich and Cory Rae May 26, 2022 • 4 Min Read
Introduction Mental health support looks different for everyone and MindMapBC aims to help folks find what is best for them. Support could include counselling, affirming health care, or social and community groups. MindMap aims to connect people with a wide range of relevant mental health services and community and social groups. We met with the founder of Chill Rides YVR to discuss social groups, community building, and the impact this can have on mental health. How did Chill Rides YVR start?...
Iva Cheung and Maja Kolar April 11, 2022 • 9 Min Read
Understanding the Mental Health Act Content note: This article uses the term “mental disorder” because that’s the legal term used in the Mental Health Act. It’s not linked to any specific psychiatric diagnosis and is not the same thing as “mental illness.” We acknowledge that this term can mean different things to different people and that some people might find it stigmatizing. Being diagnosed with a mental health condition doesn’t mean you will necessarily be hospitalized. Most people can get...
Navigating mental health services can often be confusing and difficult. This is especially the case for many youth (14~19 years old), who face multiple barriers which adults are often unaware of. Generally, we as youth are seen and socially constructed to be not yet “fully grown-up”. This means we are often seen as people who don’t know enough to take care of ourselves independently, and so we aren’t given as much power or legal rights that are given to adults. This inequity and unfairness shows...
Martha Gumprich and Carmel Tanaka February 7, 2022 • 7 Min Read
Introduction JQT Vancouver (JQT) is a Jewish Queer Trans non-profit with the goal of creating a growing and thriving community for all LGBTQ2SIA+ Jews, where various identities are celebrated where they intersect. Through education, dialogue, art, cultural celebration, and partnerships, they are ‘queering’ Jewish spaces and ‘Jew-ifying’ queer spaces to make them more inclusive. JQT offers programming all year round, both in-person and online, for queer and trans Jews to celebrate this...
First, what is conversion therapy or SOGIECE? You may have heard of conversion therapy as a specific practice that aims to change the sexual orientation of someone who is gay or not straight to heterosexual. However, more recently, ‘sexual orientation and gender identity and expression change efforts’ (SOGIECE) has been used as an umbrella term that includes conversion therapy and other explicit or implicit efforts to persuade someone to express their sexual and/or gender identity as...
“Conversion therapy” is a term used to refer to widely discredited practices that harm Two-spirit/lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer plus (2S/LGBTQ+) individuals. These practices may not be advertised publicly since they have been denounced by many medical and human rights organizations. However, conversion therapy practices continue to occur across the globe, including Canada. Wide denunciation may have led conversion therapy providers to operate ‘underground’ and advertise their...
Maya Gislason and Angel Kennedy June 22, 2021 • 7 Min Read
What is Eco-Anxiety? In a world increasingly grappling with climate change and its effects, anxiety related to climate change and the environment are at an all-time high. This phenomenon has been referred to as ‘eco-anxiety’, which is defined as persistent worry and other negative responses to the many indirect (e.g., loss of food sources due to ocean levels rising, etc.) and direct (e.g., climate events such as flooding, forest fires, etc.) threats to the environment, Earth, and human life. You...
Members of the 2S/LGBTQ+ Roundtable June 11, 2021 • 6 Min Read
Recent events have painfully reminded us that racism, colonialism, and white supremacy continue to cause harm, fear, and death in Indigenous, Black, and People of Colour (IBPOC) communities in Canada. These events include but are not limited to the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation validation of 215 buried Indigenous children who died at the Kamloops Residential School, and the mass murder of the Afzaal family in London, Ontario, motivated by anti-Muslim hate. In the words of Ameerally...
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread negative mental health impacts, increasing the need for mental health services. However, it also rapidly shifted the delivery of mental health services to remote models and platforms. MindMapBC is a database that indexes various low-barrier mental health services, including remote counselling, to meet this changing mental health landscape. There are several potential benefits to remote counselling; for example, it might feel safer speaking with a...
Jessy Dame, Harlan Pruden, and Travis Salway, on behalf of the Two-Spirit Dry Lab January 20, 2021 • 5 Min Read
Many of the services listed on MindMap focus on counselling or ‘talk therapy’ approaches. While some of us will see improvement in our mental wellbeing after accessing professional counselling services, there are a range of other practices and supports that will appeal to others of us. Below, we draw on teachings from peoples indigenous to Turtle Island1 to offer suggestions for Indigenous2 and non-Indigenous people to consider how (re-)connecting with community and/or culture may be its own...
Whether you are accessing mental health care for the first time or looking for a new therapist, finding a mental health provider can feel overwhelming. But you have the right to find someone who meets your needs. In the words of Zena Sharman, “When choosing a therapist, remember that you’re entering into an intimate relationship with another person and it needs to feel right for you.” Our team has identified five key questions that you can ask yourself to help you during this process: 1. What...
