b'MENTAL HEALTHTHE CLOUDED LENSBy Anna-Liza BadalooHow intergenerational trauma impacts the mental health of Indigenous people, and steps being taken to embrace I Indigenous healingntergenerational trauma often leads to mental health issues,When we come from wounded families and communities, we might including addictions, depression and post-traumatic stressact in a certain way that might not make sense to someone else. disorder. Rennie Linklater, Senior Director of the ShkaabeBut its because we come from these different histories [that it is] Makwa program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Healthimpacting our way of being in the world.(CAMH), is well aware of the challenges faced by those caught in this struggle. The root causes run deep and resolving the trauma can takeOne of Linklaters biggest fears is that the Indigenous people years of work.struggling most are not getting the help they need. An element of trauma is that a persons trust and safety has been broken, she Its the trauma that we have experienced in our own lifetimes, butsays. So many of our people are struggling, alone, and very sad. If also the collective histories of our people that really still sits within ourthey have a history of abuse, theyre not going to feel that theyre spirit so intensely, Linklater explains. Trauma has a way of gettingnecessarily valuable enough for someone to invest time in them. hold of someone, and really interfering with their lives and theirSome Indigenous people even fear that sharing their own trauma will ability to function and be in a relationship with others. Workingoverwhelm workers and therapists, making it even harder to reach through that trauma takes decades. Its like a layer, and a layer, and aout for help. layer slowly comes off. Linklater stresses that people are not their behaviourand that we In intergenerational trauma, the personal lens through which we seeall respond to trauma differently. Thus, effective mental health treat-the world may become clouded. Thats not the fault of a person atment strategies must not just take into account historical and cultural all, its their experience, explains Linklater, who has authored a bookcommonalities amongst Indigenous people; the circumstances of each on the topic, Decolonizing Trauma Work: Indigenous Stories and Strategies.unique client must be taken into account as well.A sweat lodge constructed on the grounds of Torontos Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) to support Indigenous healing'