Feds funded 282,065 hours of Indigenous mental health counselling in one year

Federal programs funded more than 282,000 hours of mental health counselling for Indigenous people in a single year through a program now receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funding.

According to an Access to Information note obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, Indigenous Services Canada’s Mental Wellness Program funded 282,065 hours of mental health counselling in 2024, while community-based cultural and emotional support services were accessed more than 900,000 times.

The program, previously budgeted at $199 million annually, provides access to psychologists, social workers, peer counsellors, community health workers, elders and traditional healers.

A May 27 departmental note said the services are available to survivors, intergenerational survivors, family members and others affected by what Indigenous Services described as “colonial sources of trauma.”

The program also funds three crisis lines: the Hope for Wellness Helpline, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Crisis Line and National Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line.

Together, the three services handled more than 116,000 calls and online chats in 2025, according to the department.

A 2024 federal audit said the Mental Wellness Program had initially been allocated $597.6 million over three years. Cabinet subsequently approved $630 million over two years in March.

The scope of federally funded mental wellness services extends beyond counselling related to residential schools and other historical issues.

Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty told the House of Commons in June that eligible wildfire response and recovery expenses can include mental health services and culturally sensitive supports for evacuees.

The department has also linked climate change to Indigenous mental health.

A 2025 departmental evaluation warned of “ecological grief,” arguing climate change can interfere with hunting, fishing, trapping, foraging and other land-based activities.

Extreme events including wildfires can also produce “perpetual experiences of stress and ecological grief,” the report said.