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Free counselling cut for non-status residential school survivors in B.C.

Health authority says mental health care only offered to those with First Nations status going forward
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A sign of an orange shirt is attached to a fence during a Truth and Reconciliation walk in Saskatoon, Sask., on Friday, September 30, 2022. In B.C., residential school survivors and their family members will no longer have mental health care covered as of April 15, 2024, unless they have official First Nations status. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Heywood Yu

Non-status residential school survivors and their family members will no longer have certain mental health care covered in B.C., come May.

Funding for up to 22 hours of counselling a year has been provided as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement for years, but that legal obligation ended in March 2021. Since then, B.C.’s First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) says its federal counterparts have been helping to fund the care, but that they can no longer cover the cost.

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About the Author: Jane Skrypnek

I'm a provincial reporter for Black Press Media after starting as a community reporter in Greater Victoria.
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