Nova Scotia government grants $3M to Mental Health Foundation for projects, programs

The Nova Scotia government is once again turning to the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia to find and fund projects aimed at helping people who are struggling with addictions or mental health problems.

Brian Comer, the province's minister responsible for the Office of Addictions and Mental Health, announceda one-time grant of $3 million Wednesday to distribute to community groups across the province.

At Dartmouth's Nova Scotia Hospital, Comer said that the priority will be given to groups serving Indigenous communities, the LGBTQcommunity, African Nova Scotians, newcomers and persons with disabilities.

"We know that these populations often face barriers to access needed supports," he said. "By directing funding to support marginalized Nova Scotians we can help to remove these barriers, and ensure equitable access to mental health and addiction supports."

In December 2020, the former Liberal government donated $1.6 million to the foundation. That money helped fund 106 programs delivered by 78 organizations, according to foundation president Starr Cunningham.

Those organizations included:

• Adsum for Women and Children.
• Big Brothers, Big Sisters.
• Eating Disorders Nova Scotia.
• Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Society.
• Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia.
• Wabanaki Two-Spirit Alliance.
• YWCA.

The foundation distributes the money to organizations that apply throughproposalsin January and July.

Cunningham said the millions donated by the provincewould be used to fund projects recently approved by the organization, as well as proposals selected thissummer.

The Nova Scotia government funds programs directly, but Comer said this partnership would allow money to go to groups more quickly than through usual departmental channels.

Cunningham put it more directly.

"Why reinvent the wheel?" she said. "We've been doing this at the foundation, and we do it incredibly well."

According to information supplied by theOffice of Addictions and Mental Health, the contribution to the foundation is coming from money earmarked for other initiatives that are delayed as a result of the ongoing pandemic.

They include "a new trauma model of care,"as well as threeother initiatives that were supposed to roll out this fiscal year "single session therapy, withdrawal management hubs, and e-mental health."

Federal mental health funding

Carolyn Bennett, the federal minister of mental health and addictions, was in Halifax on Wednesdayto announce $250,000 for the Mi'kmaw Native Friendship Centre to expand the work of its Direction 180 program for people with drug addiction.

The money will allow Directions 180 staffto do outreach in communities across the Atlantic provinces, as well as offer peer support and share information through the internet.

The centre's executive director, Pam Glode-Desrochers, said she was "so thankful" for the funding,but she also called on Bennett and her provincial counterparts to do more.

"If we could ask all levels of government, not just federal, but all levels of government to look at long-term funding ... so that people on the ground know that these programs will exist," said Glode-Desrochers.

"Because they do make a differenceand they do save lives."