Nunavut needed action on suicide now

The “urgent need to take action” has led to partners implementing a one-year plan to address suicide in Nunavut instead of waiting for a long-term approach to have an impact.

Early last week, the Nunavut Suicide Prevention Strategy (NSPS), which consists of members from the Nunavut government, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the RCMP and Isaksimagit Inuusirmi Katujjiqatigiit Embrace Life Council, released an action plan, entitled Resiliency Within.

“We’re just feeling the urgent need to take action …based on the recommendations of the jury of the coroner’s inquest,” said Kimberly Masson, executive director of Embrace Life Council.

Nunavut’s Chief Coroner Padma Suramala called an inquest into suicide in January 2014, after the number of suicides set a record at 45 in 2013.

That number dropped to 27 in 2014. The inquest, repeatedly postponed but eventually held in September 2015, heard testimony from family members, clinicians, researchers and partners of the Nunavut Suicide Prevention Strategy.

The jury produced 89 recommendations in their verdict. At the conclusion of the inquest, Premier Peter Taptuna declared a crisis and named Paul Okalik as Minister Responsible for Suicide Prevention and Chair of the Quality of Life Cabinet Committee.

Inuit suicide rates have been above the Canadian national average since the mid-1970s. For the past two decades, they have been about 10 times as high — 110 suicides per 100,000 people.

The one-year strategy incorporates not only the recommendations from the jury, but also outlines a number of commitments for public and community engagement, as well as training, programs and support provided during the 2016-17 fiscal year.

The one-year plan is organized along the original eight commitments of the NSPS. The NSPS was released in 2010 and an action plan instituted in 2011. The new strategy allows NSPS partners to undertake important work to implement the jury’s verdict, build on successes of the previous action plan and engage stakeholders for a longer-term plan to foster and support resiliency within Nunavummiut and the communities.

Among the commitments is to “equip youth to cope with adversity.” The one-year plan states much more can be done to ensure that exposure to adverse life events or negative emotions does not lead to negative behaviour. “The partners commit to provide a stronger protective foundation for youth to realize their true potential, including but not limited to public campaigns against physical and sexual assault and parenting classes. In addition, the partners commit to provide training opportunities for youth to cope with negative emotions…”

According to a report prepared for the NTI in September 2015, from April 1, 1999 to March 31, 2014, 281 youth between the ages 10 and 24 years of age committed suicide.

“There is action that is happening,” said Masson. “Often its work that’s going on in spaces where it’s not necessarily visible, but somethings are more obvious than others.”

Community consultation will give members of both large and small communities the opportunity to weigh-in on the direction the NSPS should go.

The short-term strategy notes that “communities must play a central role in all aspects of this strategy, but a primary role will be to provide programs and services that encourage and build healthier individuals and families. To enable communities to identify and act on their own community-development priorities, the partners will ensure that communities can access funding for their social and cultural priorities with an emphasis on increasing community-development capacity.”

A stakeholders summit is scheduled for May in Iqaluit to work on a long-term plan that would cover three to five years.