KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER - Thanks to a counselling workshop July 25, health and emergency workers have created a network of contacts so those who need help can be directed to the right people as quickly as possible.

"Here in town, incidents happen. When something happens here in town, nurses don't know who to contact from the community," said Joanne Qillaq, co-ordinator of the new Interagency Critical Incident and Trauma Response Team. "Since we're going to work with them we had a meeting with them: the health centre staff, the nurses, the RCMP, the hamlet, the Ilisaqsivik counsellors and the minister at the church and the Canadian Rangers."

Other groups were the elders' committee, search and rescue, the coroner's office and Inuksuit School.

Especially for nurses and RCMP from out of town, the workshop was an opportunity to get to know people in the community who can be helpful to them in their work.

Qillaq said the team's role was to ensure the right people are alerted when an emergency happens.

"If somebody's suicidal, if they bring it to health centre, if the health centre doesn't know where to call, they can contact a minister here in town," she said as an example. "If somebody needs a counsellor, we've got five counsellors here in Ilisaqsivik."

The team emerged as a result of a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing and Trauma Response workshop held in Clyde River.

Workshop facilitator Terry Garchinski said he collaborated with elders to incorporate Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit into the material.

"Its specific purpose was working with elders to help mostly counsellors to become more proficient at responding to trauma and critical incidents," Garchinski said. "Incidents such as people lost on the land, suicide, suicide attempts, accidents, drownings and other sudden deaths."

"Critical incident stress debriefing" is when a counsellor talks to someone who has gone through a difficult experience such as the sudden death of a loved one. Garchinski said two or three days after it happened is the best time to start talking about it, not immediately after the incident. Too soon and the person is still in shock and unable to process what has happened.

"It would be too recently to try to comfort them after a few hours, too hard for them," said Sarahmee Kautuq, a youth counsellor from Clyde River. "I try to talk to them when they're ready. I try to let them know that I'm there for them."

Group talks are often helpful, said Garchinski. Having other people around who are dealing with similar feelings means people realize their feelings are normal. Talking about them to each other can be better than talking with a counsellor alone, who isn't as emotionally connected to what happened.

Often after a traumatic experience people get images of what happened "stuck" in their minds, Garchinski said. Talking to other people who are feeling similar helps those images get "unstuck."

Language is essential, Garchinski said. He said one of the objectives of the workshop was to give counselling tools to people who are bilingual or whose first language is Inuktitut because they would be most effective in working with other residents of Clyde River.