Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Clyde River (Mar 25/02) - A new wellness initiative in the North Baffin will try to restore vitality in families and communities.

The project aims to end self-destructive behaviour patterns and prevent more suicides from occurring in the area.

Nearly twice as many people take their own lives in the region as compared with the rest of Nunavut -- a rate that is 15 times higher than the national average.

Rather than focusing on the negativity of the problem, however, participants look at ways of developing concrete positive solutions.

The idea came out of a counselling workshop attended by caregivers from Clyde River, Pond Inlet, Arctic bay, Grise Fiord, Resolute, Iglulik and Hall Beach. They realized they need to work together to help members of their communities connect with one another and change destructive behaviours.

The first step was to find a name that fully reflected the intent of the project -- Iqrinnaqtuq.

"The word actually means one of those days when you go out and the weather makes you want to take a deep breath and get on with the day. It's so calm and clear and everything is alive," explained Beverly Illauq, a project participant and the director and co-ordinator of the Ilisaqsivik Society.

Illauq said the working group will establish family resource centres, hold youth camps, promote suicide prevention walks and hold semi-annual North Baffin gatherings.

She also stressed the need to provide the caregivers with the resources they need to continue to function and provide counselling for people.

"They want to begin to move from community to community to support each other. We know it's hard to counsel your aunt, but if somebody comes in from another community and your aunt feels comfortable, they can see them," said Illauq.

Participants will monitor the program's impact over the next five years

While they have already to begun to implement their plans, the working group has submitted funding proposals to help them fully develop the project.

"If you support healthy families, you get more healthy families. That's what we're about."