Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Apr 08/02) - The suicide in Clyde River during a recent wellness symposium drove home the need to push for more healing-based resources.

Beverly Illauq, the director and co-ordinator of the Ilisaqsivik Society in the community, said the death of the young resident made participants reach out to one another for help, support and ideas on how to solve the crisis.

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

Illauq said the hamlet of Qikiqtarjuaq was particularly helpful in illustrating to its neighbours to the north the value of combining energy and existing resources.

"We want to use each other's resources so we don't let these young people slip through the cracks," she said.

To that end, a community meeting with all 10 of Ilisaqsivik's committees -- representing about 100 people involved in wellness initiatives in the hamlet -- will come together later this month to pool their resources.

"They're all doing what they can to prevent suicide. The next step is to pull these all together," she said.

Another positive result of the wellness symposium, held in Iqaluit with some 50 participants from across the territory, was the identification of four common roadblocks to a healthy community.

Illauq said one of the most pressing needs is for space -- a building for wellness workers in each hamlet. "We realized how lucky we are to have Ilisaqsivik," she said .

Formerly a health centre, the Ilisaqsivik building now offers a host of healing programs and is responsible for the strong movement towards wellness taking place in that community. Illauq said other communities need the same advantage.

"It's no longer possible to fit wellness into the corners of hamlet offices," she said.

Illauq said wellness needs to be better defined so people understand what the goals of activities are. This means the government needs to put matters of emotional health at the top of its list.

In keeping with the leading role Clyde River takes in healing initiatives, Illauq said a framework for health and overcoming obstacles is available at www.ilisaqsivik.com.