'A lot of hurt': N.S. moves ahead with grief services in areas affected by 2020 mass shooting
Proposals accepted until late August for grief, bereavement support
The provincial government is looking for a group to handle grief services in northern Nova Scotia, months after millions in federal and provincial funds were promised for mental health resources in the area.
On Monday, the province announced it was accepting proposals from organizations to help people throughout the counties of Cumberland, Colchester and East Hants.
In April 2020, a gunman driving a mock RCMP cruiser killed 22 people across that region, including many of his neighbours in Portapique.
"There's still a lot of scared people, a lot of fear, still a lot of grief, a lot of hurt," Erin MacKinnon of Portapique said Monday.
Although support centres to connect people with help were set up right away in affected areas, MacKinnon said many people weren't ready to talk — or only recently realized the extent of their grief.
"It's not something that you can just snap your fingers, and people jump and automatically know what their issues are or what they need to talk about. It's time. Everything takes a lot of time," MacKinnon said.
The Mass Casualty Commission that led the public inquiry into the shooting recommended that the federal and provincial governments fund a program to address residents' unmet needs for mental health, grief and bereavement support by May 1.
On April 28, the two levels of governments each committed to spend $9 million over a two-year period to get the program up and running.
Brian Comer, the minister responsible for the office of addictions and mental health, said it took some time to consult with community groups in the area about what was needed before bringing in a grief and bereavement program.
"This will be a multi-system approach certainly led by the community," Comer said Monday.
"This would also be a new comprehensive approach, I would say, for the northern zone … so they need to be supported and we needed to ensure that we had the proper input before proceeding."
MacKinnon said although she was at first unsure about the actual impact of the government announcements this spring, given that "you're never sure if they're actually going to come through," there's been a lot of outreach so far.
"Them coming down to the community and talking and meeting and yeah, it sounds very promising," MacKinnon said.
"It's good to see that there is going to be a lot of ways for people to get support if they need it on different levels."
MacKinnon is among the residents leading the Portapique "buildup" project to bring community members together. They have so far created a new playground, and are building a new Portapique hall that will house various events and resources, including ideally some of the upcoming mental-health support programs.
She said they hope to be "bridging the gap" between what is needed for the community and what Nova Scotia Health and the province can offer.
"We've had to pick up a lot of pieces and we've had to deal with a lot of post-traumatic stress and, you know, depression," MacKinnon said. "We started a ball rolling, you know, long before the government decided to step in for support."
Contract to be awarded this fall
Organizations have until Aug. 25 to submit their proposals for grief services, and the province said the grant will be awarded by the fall.
The contract is worth $800,000 in the first year and up to $1.5 million in the second, according to a news release.
For the first year, the work will focus on the communities most impacted by the mass shooting. It will expand across the province the following year.
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