Anishnabeg Outreach develops self-serve mental health tool, set to test it with local groups

A new resource developed by Anishnabeg Outreach provides self-guided mental health help to people who need it in the community.

Anishnabeg Outreach started out as an employment and training organization but has grown into a local hub for Indigenous culture, offering everything from a community garden space to support for families.

Now, the group has develop AONest, a software that's now on their website that helps anyone access information about essential life skills and to navigate mental health challenges that may make day-to-day life difficult.

It also provides Indigenous people with the cultural and language resources they need.

"It's an Indigenous way of being, so it was holistic. If I think about western or colonial type solutions, they're usually Band-Aid or reactive, whereas Indigenous is more proactive and more holistic in nature," Anishnabeg Outreach CEO Stephen Jackson told Craig Norris, host of CBC K-W's The Morning Edition, during a visit to the organization's Kitchener office.

"We actually just took mental health itself, we reverse engineered it and we turned every topic into a process. We just teach everything there is to know about it and then we give people worksheets to develop their own solution set for themselves."

Jackson says it's hoped that as people move through the learning tools and use the worksheets, it can help them heal.

By the end of the year, the organization hopes to have more than 600 courses online to help people deal with a variety of topics like ADHD, anger management and developing emotional intelligence.

"We're just simply going to give them our tool set," he said, adding their approach to healing will be different from the status quo.

"A therapist doesn't give you the answers, they give you the questions. You have to find your own answers. We're just helping people find their own answers for everything."

Pilot project

AONest is being piloted at a number of organizations including Your Support Services Network in Aurora, which is focused on helping people experiencing a mental health crisis.

It's director of services, Gary Whetung, says after the pandemic, they noticed a lot of people were struggling with mental health challenges like overthinking and loneliness. He's hoping AONest will help guide them through those feelings.

"What I'm really hoping for is that as people create their own healing journey, one that's self-directed, it'll be something that will be empowering for people and will help build resilience and help people charter path for their lives that will bring them happiness in the future."

Jackson says the software is currently being piloted at a variety of local organizations like Family and Children Services of Waterloo Region, Trillium Waldorf Private School and the Guelph Community Health Centre. It's also on the Anishnabeg Outreach website.