IQALUIT
They teach those who want to help how to assist people who are contemplating taking their own lives. And it's difficult work.

Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training instructors Mary Ellen MacLean of Taloyoak, left, and Jeanne Mike of Pangnirtung teach suicide first aid to a class of six people in Iqaluit Jan. 18 and 19. - Michele LeTourneau/NNSL photo

Jeanne Mike and Mary Ellen MacLean taught the two-day Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) workshop in Iqaluit Jan. 18 and 19.

Both have been instructors in the program since 2010, one year after the first training for trainers (T4T) took place in Nunavut in 2009.

"They trained many instructors," said MacLean. "But there's very few left."

Back then, the Department of Health was responsible for ASIST, but responsibility switched over to Nunavut Arctic College in 2013, which has an annual operating budget of $170,000 to deploy the program. Currently, there are six ASIST trainers in Nunavut, including Mike and MacLean.

There are 1,633 people in the territory who had taken the program, according to numbers up to Nov. 2. Since then, Mike has trained 56 more Nunavummiut and MacLean has trained 34. They are run ragged. The program needs an injection of resources.

But what is ASIST and why is it important?

ASIST falls into the category of intervention, commonly known as suicide first aid. It trains people to recognize signs of imminent suicide and, step by step, lead an at-risk person to a safe place.

"In my years as a social worker, and then in child and youth outreach, most of the programs I was seeing were in prevention," said Mike. "And like I said during circle, having lost a child, even though it's not to suicide, I had so much empathy for parents who lost their children to suicide.

"When I took the T4T I just felt this was so empowering, that at least when people take ASIST it gives them the skills to do something. Not as prevention, not just to sit down with somebody and say, 'Don't do this,' but actually give them skills to help someone. So it was a move from prevention to actual intervention."

The intervention model taught in the workshop becomes second nature.

"I've had feedback. The feedback is, 'I never would have known or even suspected this person may be looking for help until I took this course. It just makes me a bit more aware of some of the invitations.'"

"Invitations," in the ASIST model, means the ways people speak, the things they say, to indicate they have reached the point of deciding suicide is the only avenue left to them.

MacLean has similar reason to travel the territory teaching the intervention model. As a mental health professional, she says people who are at risk of suicide are not necessarily people she might see in her office. People who are in the community can be empowered to notice and intervene.

"It's empowering to people in the community. Suicide intervention training allows people to know what to look for and not be afraid to see."

Fear of even speaking of suicide, never mind saying the word out loud, is common.

Joan Brown took the two-day workshop offered in Iqaluit. Brown, 25, is originally from Cape Dorset, moved away when she was seven years old and moved back six months ago. The first morning of the course, she was ready to bail. During the talking circle on the first morning, she was frank about not wanting to talk about suicide.

"I had to put myself in a different spot. It's not about me. It's about trying to be there for other people. It's about facing those things. I didn't want to face it but then realizing I could be there to help somebody else," said Brown.

"I remember the switch. I left here (for lunch on the first day), I went to the hotel room and I was so close to calling it off. 'I'm sorry you're going to get charged for this course because I can't do it.'

"I didn't want to deal with the whole death thing, having to deal with somebody contemplating (suicide). Then I just decided I should just push through."

After the second day, much of which involved role-playing in scenarios where a teammate was a person at risk, Brown says, "Now I feel I got the skills I need to help somebody. Actually help somebody."

Brown, said she might consider taking the T4T, noting the high suicide rate in the region.

She strongly recommends the course for others. She hopes the two-day workshop will be offered in Cape Dorset.

South Baffin MLA David Joanasie, who has been vocal in the legislative assembly about the territorial Suicide Prevention Strategy and the ASIST component, also participated in the two-day workshop.

"Suicide has affected me personally and many people in the territory. I think it's important. I've made statements in the legislature about wanting to take this training. I'm getting better insight on how I can help in these types of situations when a person feels like they need the help when they're at the end of the line, so to speak."

A promise to create a budget for the Suicide Prevention Strategy and its action plan, and present it at the February sitting, was made by the premier in October.

"The immediate task ahead for the associate deputy on suicide is to manage and outline, with the minister of health, new monies and a costing process to identify the needed funds, new staffing positions and recruitment efforts, new program dollars, training programs, and supports to implement the inquest recommendations, as well as support the broader suicide strategy.

"The minister of health will bring those costed and analyzed requests to the house in the winter session," said Premier Peter Taptuna.

In an independent review of the Suicide Prevention Strategy and its action plan, the reviewer stated, "ASIST has not fully penetrated the broader Nunavut society - it has been primarily delivered to GN staff and other groups (such as Arctic College students). Information on ASIST is not readily available to Nunavummiut."

Joanasie says he will continue to advocate for ASIST being delivered throughout Nunavut and for all Nunavummiut to take it. That will mean funding to train more trainers. But he will also be watching for the larger suicide strategy to be implemented.

As noted repeatedly during the two-day program in Iqaluit, anyone can be vulnerable to suicide. Mike offered herself as an example. She'd been ill and tired for months last year and found herself thinking, "I don't like my life."

That was an a-ha moment for her. She was shocked.

"If people get to that point in their life ... I reached out. I had people to talk to."

She recognized the signs in herself, in part thanks to the training.

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