Acadian Mental Health

The term “Acadian” refers to the French-speaking people of the Maritime provinces of Canada. ¹ The history of the Acadians is marked by deportation and colonization, as well as numerous attempts of assimilation. ² Today, francophones make up almost one-third of the population of New Brunswick, ³ Canada’s only officially bilingual province. ⁴ As mental health professionals living and working in the predominantly francophone region of northeastern New Brunswick, we conducted a literature review with the goal of better understanding the needs of the population we serve and the mental health services available to that population.

Our literature search was conducted between October and December of 2014. We searched several databases and online journal archives, using French and English search terms. Given the scarcity of articles found, we decided to include all documents focusing on mental health of Acadians from peer-reviewed journals regardless of article type. In total, only 5 items were found that focused on Acadian mental health in New Brunswick. Despite the scarcity of articles, we were able to identify certain themes that we believe are still relevant today.

Historically, multiple challenges have been identified in the provision of mental health services to New Brunswick’s Acadian population. ⁵ These have included the stigma associated with mental illness, the historical isolation of the francophone population, limited funding, difficulty recruiting and retaining nursing staff, limited availability of French language services, and difficulty recruiting psychiatrists who were both linguistically and culturally familiar with the Acadian setting. Furthermore, Acadians seemed to have higher rates of psychiatric admissions and higher rates of involuntary hospitalization, compared with the Canadian average. ² Francophones appeared to have less favourable perceptions of psychiatric services and of effectiveness of medications, compared with anglophones. What was also interesting was that francophones placed more importance on their support groups and family support networks, compared with anglophones, who emphasized the psychiatric institutions, psychiatrists, and clinics as most helpful. ⁶

The scarcity of scientific papers highlights the lack of mental health research among Acadians in New Brunswick. We find this surprising, given that francophones constitute almost one-third of New Brunswick’s population. ³ This lack of research might reflect a lack of funding, lack of educational institutions, or even a lack of interest in studying Acadians. With only 5 manuscripts, the lack of recent publications, and the methodological limitations of some of the publications that were found, our search was very limited regarding its applicability to the Acadian population of New Brunswick. Evidently, there is a major gap in the literature, and at this time we do not know whether the historical challenges have ever been addressed. Given the Acadians’ linguistic and cultural identity, and given the history of collective trauma, discrimination, and marginalization in New Brunswick, more research is needed. In our opinion, the most pressing research issues would be as follows: the prevalence of mental health conditions and psychiatric morbidity among Acadians, the quality and accessibility of mental health services, and the availability of culturally sensitive mental health services.

Hossam M. Mahmoud, MD, MPH Mireille E. Sers, MLIS Vitalité Health Network, Bathurst, New Brunswick [e-mail] Jason E. Tuite, MSW, RSW Horizon Health Network, Miramichi, New Brunswick