Suicide hotline in need
Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services
Kugluktuk (Mar 19/01) - After a year of late-night phone calls and offering words of caring advice, the Coombers are ready to move on.
It's not that the Kugluktuk couple has grown weary of running the hamlet's suicide helpline, it's just that life has beckoned them in another direction.
The pair are moving to Yellowknife at the end of March. What will become of the suicide helpline, 982-HOPE, is uncertain.
"I'm trying to find somebody now who will carry the torch. I think somebody will," said Harold Coomber.
Both he and his spouse Arlene answer calls for help from their home on a seven-day a week, 24-hour-a-day basis.
Speaking from the Kitikmeot community's awareness centre, where Coomber is employed, he said he was actively searching for a new home for the helpline. He's posted posters, consulted other suicide prevention and mental health workers and is getting the word out on the street. He said for those interested in lending a caring ear to troubled Kugluktuk residents, mandatory job skills included a strong sense of understanding and the ability to fall back to sleep in the middle of the night.
"It has to be a person that cares for people -- you're getting calls in the middle of the night and they wake you up and you have to have a good attitude about that," said Coomber.
"When you do wake up, you have to be able to go back to sleep. You have to be that kind of person. That seems to be no problem for us. We wake up, talk a little bit and go back to sleep again," he said.
Lend a hand, lend an ear
Coomber said he and Arlene came from a long history of suicide prevention work and made the move to get involved in Kugluktuk's helpline last year after two residents committed suicide over the course of one weekend.
"I went to a suicide intervention workshop and they were talking about the problems of suicide that had occurred in the community," said Coomber.
"They were all talking about things we could do to help people. Somebody mentioned about a phone that was available for a helpline and I sort of twigged on it," he said.
Inquiries led Coomber to the hamlet office where he learned there was indeed an available phone line. Everything fell into place and the couple began answering the calls. Coomber said he believed they'd had quite a bit of success over the past year, particularly on weekends when the phone rings most often.
The search is on
Joanne Taptuna, a community activist in Kugluktuk, said the search for a new home for the phone line would be raised with the hamlet council. She said it was crucial that the service be continued.
"I'd like to sit down with council and see what ideas they have," said Taptuna.
Caroline Anawak, a suicide prevention expert and health promotion specialist for the department of health, said she was certain that someone in the hamlet would come forward and take over the service.
"A lot of people there have the training and know what they have to do to have a safe and healthy community," said Anawak.
"My money is on them," she said.
