Mental and physical wellness is top of mind for Mission as a host of factors threaten the livelihood of its residents.
The City of Mission unveiled a sweeping new Community Wellness Strategy at the first council session of the new year.
Mission Healthy Community Council (MHCC) coordinator Roberta O’Brien presented the long-term road-map for wellness to council with an accompanying report over 50 pages long.
“[The strategy] will require the leadership of the City of Mission and the commitment of many different organizations to make this possible,” the report read.
In 2021, the city launched the MHCC and plans were set in motion to create the Community Wellness Strategy in 2022.
The MHCC held focus groups with stakeholders, completed a public survey, reviewed documents and policies, worked through data, sought Indigenous engagement, and met community members with lived experience with homelessness.
“We want to do it all, of course, but there’s not enough people or time or funding to do it all,” said Mission’s Manager of Social Development Kirsten Hargreaves. “So how do we come together to align limited people power and limited resources to make sure we are all on the same page in what our most pressing priorities are for Mission?”
The reason for developing the strategy was the array of challenges facing Mission on both a granular and big picture scale.
“Wellness encompasses a range of factors, including physical and mental health, healthy living environments, and community connectedness,” the report stated. “Mission is grappling with complex challenges including climate change, rising costs of living, and the dual public health crises of COVID-19 and the overdose/toxic drug supply crisis.”
The strategy established five goals to enhance wellness. It aims for Mission to be an equitable community that meets basic needs, a secure community where everyone feels safe, an accessible community that fosters both physical and mental health and wellness, a compassionate community where everyone belongs, and a participatory community where everyone engages at the level they desire.
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Councillors Jag Gill and Angel Elias were absent from the meeting, but other councillors praised the depth of the report and raised concerns about the feasibility of some of the goals.
“The goals feel really aspirational,” Coun. Mark Davies said “It sets the bar so high that I think it puts us at real risk of saying this is just too hard to achieve, and we never will. So how do we get these goals to a point where it becomes something that we can really chew on?”
“If we’re punching a bit above our weight, I’m all for it,” Mayor Paul Horn said. “That’s exactly what Mission is all about. I have no problem with the boldness.”
To achieve these goals, the report outlined 15 strategic directions for the city to take. They included expanding housing options, providing basic needs support, strengthening mental health and substance use prevention, creating a central hub for services, and preparing for climate emergencies.
The top priorities across focus group participants were providing mental health and substance use support and providing a central hub for wellness services.
“The cost of not having proper facilities for folks with mental health and substance needs is that we pay for them in other ways by sending out emergency personnel all the time,” Horn said.
“It’s burning out our personnel and costing us an extraordinary amount of tax dollars. People just keep on living this Groundhog Day of misery”
Going forward, the strategy suggests the City of Mission and its partners prioritize the recommended actions, track data to measure success, and develop annual memos summarizing progress on actions and indicators for the next five years.
@dillon_white
dillon.white@missioncityrecord.com
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