Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Mar 06/02) - It's a job precious few people in the Kivalliq can handle. Yet, emergency response plays a vital role in the region, perhaps more so than anywhere else in Canada.

On top of the emergency-response personnel, more and people from other walks of life find themselves dealing with trauma in our region and across Nunavut.

Kivalliq regional fire Marshal Tim Hinds says the region needs to have critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) teams available to help people deal with what they witness.

Hinds says prime examples of traumatic experiences people have dealt with during the past two years were the Avataq sinking near Arviat and the two people who lost their lives in a canoeing accident in Baker Lake.

He says incidents like those may require CISD intervention for people who deal with them.

"There are situations where the grieving process can be helped by other professionals in the community and by family and friends," says Hinds.

"But, we need to be able to recognize when it's necessary to intervene for a critical incident stress situation with the responders.

"Nobody's immune. Every community has had traumatic incidents and will continue to have them."

Workers from across Nunavut took a CISD program in Rankin this past month.

Hinds says due to the North comprising so many small communities, responders are often either related to the victim or a friend of theirs. That situation, he says, can be more difficult to deal with.

"When you recognize somebody involved in an incident, there's a lot of stress involved and the trauma can set in and cause you some difficulties."

Course participants included board of health staff, a community constable, firefighters, justice personnel, RCMP and a day-care worker.

But Hinds says those aren't the only people who can be involved with CISD teams.

"Some people are natural counsellors -- elders, the religious community, those who work in the health centres and on justice committees -- and can assist on these teams. The counsellors can even turn to each other for help, especially if they were there for the incident."