ABSTRACT

Across the globe, mental illness has been identified as a major population health issue. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2018), Healthy People 2020 (2018), and the World Health Organization (2018) concur that mental illness is a problem of concern that shows no territorial boundaries and is socioeconomically indiscriminate with respect to its presence and impact. In saying this, it is important to appreciate that the concept of mental illness differs between peoples and cultures. The Anishinaabe indigenous peoples, for example, have traditionally perceived mental illness in terms of preternatural possession in the form of the windigo, which is used to explain a range of deleterious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Angell (1997) and Angell, Kurz, and Gottfried (1997) discuss this in depth with respect to working cross-culturally. They suggest diverse ways of knowing should guide social workers to assess problems differentially through a lens that is person and situation specific. In so doing, greater understanding is achieved, and promising practices result. Moreover, Angell (2018) presents the case that morally and ethically, social workers engaging indigenous peoples, their systems of support, and their communities need to use a critical theory-based anti-oppressive approach founded on equity, partnership, and collaboration. This echoes and theoretically advances Castellano’s (2004) observation on ethical engagement of indigenous peoples in Canada, which, in turn, has been codified by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2014). Indeed, these tenets surely should guide us in all our work and be applicable to everyone irrespective of culture or location.