Alcoholism exists at the rate it does in Canada because of a failure in mental health care, a failure in adequate help for abused children, and a failure in our treatment of native people. I knew a lot of people who were recovering alcoholics as a kid, most of them were incredibly nice people who had been wronged as children by our government, all of whom had been denied treatment for mental health issues on multiple occasions. [part 1]
Fundamentally the government is at fault for failing native people who become alcoholics, and therefore fundamentally it is Canadian societies duty to treat them, at whichever stage we wake up to treat them at. If we’ve failed them before doesn’t mean we have to fail them now. If anything it means we have more of a duty to treat them if we can. When someone dies of addiction in Canada they have died because Canadian society has failed to support them. [part 2]
This is especially true when it is a native person. Native people don’t end up as addicts because of a personal failure it’s because we've failed them. If you think it’s their own fault you need to read a history book and a psychology book. [part 3/3] Sorry this is really personal to me, and I'm going off on the ask without reading what the ask was about it's just a huge trigger for me.
~~~~
