SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A health-care worker in Fort Providence said she now has better tools to help people who are dealing with serious trauma issues.

Lori Gill, left, conference facilitator, listens as Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy gives the opening address at the annual community counselling program conference at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre in Yellowknife on May 3. - John McFadden/NNSL photo

Rachael Walpert, mental health and addictions counsellor with Deh Cho Health and Social Services attended a three-day trauma conference at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre in Yellowknife from May 3 to 5. She was joined by about 50 other health-care workers from across the NWT. Walpert said trying to help people - from young children to elders who are suffering all different kinds of trauma - is a large part of what she does.

"For instance if a child, from infancy, has a mother who is struggling with addiction - sometimes the mother won't be emotionally present, especially if she is still using," Walpert said. "In the training we learned a lot of grounding techniques, soothing techniques - things like imagining a safe place, breathing techniques, living in the here and now."

Walpert said part of her job is to recognize and diagnose people with trauma and try to find productive, healthy ways to deal with it. Being the victim of emotional, physical and sexual abuse in the home can lead to trauma but so can witnessing it, Walpert said.

Health and Social Services Minister Glen Abernethy kicked off the conference with the opening address, pointing out that the participants would come away with a better understanding of the trauma that can lead to homelessness, mental health and addiction issues. He said his department continues to improve on this file by reviewing current policies and developing new ones.

"We are working on a new mental health and addictions framework. We've brought in experts from across the country as well as Northerners who are helping us frame what we are doing today and how we move forward."

Conference facilitator Lori Gill is a clinical director from an Ontario trauma treatment centre. She said experiencing trauma can not only affect the mind but people's physical health as well. Gill said there are differences in the trauma she hears about here compared to the south.

"There is a large indigenous population here and as a result of residential schools, which is a mass trauma, you have a largely traumatized population. They're doing the best they can to cope and survive the atrocities they experienced," Gill said, adding a relatively effective treatment is to get those people back to the land and their traditional culture.

"A lot of it is getting back to traditional aboriginal practices ... drumming, singing, nature, using our senses," Gill said. "A lot of these practices are not new to indigenous populations but we're starting to see more and more research showing us the impact this has on regulating the nervous system, the brain and the body."

Gill said that her experience has shown that people suffering from emotional trauma think there is something wrong with them - they are crazy.

Once it is explained to them how the events in their life have shaped who they are and led to some of the problems that they have had, she said these people tend to have an easier path to the healing process.

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