SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Kevin Grinsted is at the forefront of helping the North catch up with the rest of the world in dealing with mental health issues.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) has been around for more than two decades, and the manager of mental health services for the Stanton Territorial Health Authority said this form of therapy is designed to give those struggling with depression the tools they need to cope with, recover from and prevent recurrences of illness.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy aims to help a patient change negative mindset and behaviours through a goal-oriented, systematic approach, something Grinsted says has a higher success rate than just giving someone anti-depressants, though the therapy is often used in conjunction with medication.

That could be as simple as making sure a patient gets up and brushes their teeth in the morning, said Grinsted.

"It's normal to feel depressed; you're not any less of a person to feel that way," he said.

"You can get so depressed that you don't get out of bed in the morning. But the recovery trajectory on that is you have to, step by step, recapture that portion of your life - doing a little bit more each day, even if it's just brushing your teeth. That's the way out - it's the actions.

"With pharmacology in six months you have a 38 per cent return rate with patients," he added.

"If you look at CBT in an acute care setting, in six months it's almost like a flat line. It has a much higher success rate."

Randy Paterson, a British Columbia psychologist and clinic director of Changeways, an evidence-based psychological service, completed a three-day course with more than 12 NWT health care professionals recently. He said Canada's use of CBT is lagging behind the rest of the international community, especially Australia and Britain, where the medical communities say it should be a front line for fighting depression.

"The research evidence is positive," Paterson said. "When someone is first diagnosed with depression this should be the first thing they go through. Yellowknife is trying to get people to have these strategies for them to work with."

Paterson said it is as effective as medication in the short term, but in the long-term the results are maintained a lot longer than with medication alone.

"It's true for mild depression and moderate depression and we're starting to see it's more superior in the longevity effect," he said.

"It's been slow to be applied. In Canada it's slow because of the fragmentation in our system. Britain and Australia are national health care systems, where in Canada we're broken down by provincial health care delivery."

Paterson said it's possible to prevent major depression through the use of this therapy.

"It's taking steps towards dealing with it. Anyone who has had a major depressive episode needs to take a look at their lives and pay more attention to the things going on in their lives that might be triggers for depression."

Grinsted said a person prone to depression can maintain a healthy life, but will have to work at maintaining it, otherwise the wheels can fall off.

"A lot of people understand that when they're in that position they need to go back to the things they did before," said Grinsted. "Like with a diabetic, if suddenly their blood sugars are going up, you look at the things you were doing before."

"We all go through depressive periods in life, but it's about figuring out where your tipping point is and having discussions about it with the significant people in your life. It's about having a healthy dialogue."