Archive for July 2024

Engraving of Adam Smith, based on a portrait by James Tassie from 1787

Mental health experts, community clinics and politicians are increasingly calling attention to barriers Latinos might face in seeking treatment — like the lack of mental health professionals who are Latino and speak Spanish or other languages — and working to create new programs to address access issues. Above: Dr. Fernando Taveras, a psychiatrist and Hispanic mental healthcare expert with SOMOS Community Care Clinic

Facing increased flooding from a rising Pacific Ocean, the Quinault Indian Nation has been working for over a decade to relocate Taholah, Washington their largest village, to a new site on higher ground. Above: A row of houses sits feet away from the Pacific Ocean, which often floods through and over the 15-foot seawall during winter king tides and storms on the Quinault reservation in Taholah.

Five years later, Saunders transferred to Kelowna in syilx homelands. While working as a social worker with MCFD’s Indigenous Integrated Family Service and Guardianship, Saunders opened 24 joint bank accounts with youth, whose wellbeing he was supposed to look out for. For six and a half years, starting in June 2011, he issued more than 850 ministry cheques to the youth, which he deposited in each youth’s account. The cheques totalled more than $460,000. Since the funds were in a joint account, Saunders was then able to transfer the money to his personal bank account. Most of the cheques, which ranged from support payments to startup funds for youth aging out of care, were in amounts of $579.