Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 10, 2007

OTTAWA - Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Mary Simon has been appointed to the board of the new Mental Health Commission of Canada by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Mary Simon: The only way to combat suicide is to create healthy people. -

Simon said she dreams of a time when the North has adequate mental health care and addictions services, and its residents don't have to travel to "foreign hospitals" down south for their treatment.

"These are things that are long term. They don't happen overnight. But the fact that we're actually talking about it is a beginning," she said.

The Inuit leader said she wants to ensure people keep talking about it, as she assumes her latest role on the board of the new Mental Health Commission of Canada.

The group has been tasked with the creation and promotion of a national strategy for mental health, an anti-stigma campaign and a centre for learning.

Simon said, "There's been such a very rapid transition in our lifestyle in the North, and people get caught in that process and can't adapt to the changes that are taking place."

Northern communities lack proper services for diagnosis and treatment, and an emphasis should be put on training local people as counsellors, she said.

Stigmatization of those with mental illness is another hurdle, according to Simon.

"Even when I was growing up ... I didn't understand for a long time that you could be sick mentally, and I'm sure a lot of people have gone through that process of not understanding," she said. "When someone has a mental illness, it's not something that is well accepted.

Suicide is a major issue to be addressed throughout the northern region, but in a more holistic fashion, Simon said.

"I always say that suicide is a symptom of a bigger issue. It's a result of something else going on in your life. The only way to combat suicide is to create healthy people, but it won't go away unless the younger generation has more opportunities. They need to get better education, better housing, and when you start to increase the healthy people in your community, the suicide rate will go down."

Annie Quirke, director of the Embrace Life Council in Iqaluit, said she was pleased to hear of the new commission.

"All of us who are in the front line know that there are much needed services. We in the headquarters know that we have to be careful how much load we put on our volunteers in the communities, because there is just so much need," she said.

Quirke's Cambridge Bay colleague Kane Tologanak, a wellness training and development co-ordinator for Embrace Life in the Kitikmeot region, seconded Simon's assertion that communication is key to the solution, even on the ground level.

"We can only give as much support as we can locally, but more exposure to information and counselling is just as important in this day and age," he said.