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Stigma is killing the community Rankin Inlet residents with mental illness have a chance to get better but many aren't seeking help because of a lack of support
Miranda Scotland
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, July 31, 2013
KANGIQLINIQ/RANKIN INLET
If someone broke their leg they wouldn’t hesitate to go to the health centre for treatment and no one in the community would think differently of them for doing it.
Psychiatric nurse Irene Way says stigma is what's stopping residents in the community from seeking help for mental illness. As a result, they end up going from crisis to crisis. - Miranda Scotland/NNSL photo
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Yet residents who suffer from mental illness are stigmatized because of their condition.
As a result, said Irene Way, a psychiatric nurse in Rankin Inlet, many community members don’t seek the help they need and their illnesses only get worse.
Stigma is a problem all over but Way said she has found it to be a greater issue in Rankin Inlet.
“They suffer in silence,” she said of community member with mental illnesses, adding they eventually end up in crisis, which at times leads to tragedy.
“There’s no reason people have to live that way when there is help out there.”
According to Way, the four mental illnesses most common among the community's population are: schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
Dealing with the voices
Of the four, schizophrenia is the hardest to deal with, said Way.
Residents with the mental illness often become fixated on a certain belief, they may be paranoid, and experience visual and/or auditory hallucinations.
“It’s like you’re trying to work but there is this low kind of monotone voice or voices that keep saying over and over again … ‘You suck, what are you trying to do that for? You should just give up. There’s someone out there watching you all the time. You’ll never get a way with that,’” explained Way.
If someone is hearing voices, she said, it’s important for the people around them not say “there are no voices.”
Instead, they should tell the person something like “I don’t hear those voices but I know you do. I believe you. I know you hear those voices.”
Schizophrenia is a condition that can be managed with medication and supportive therapies, allowing the person to stay in their community.
People fare better, said Way, when the illness is caught early on and they have support.
Families can assist by understating what the person is going through and helping their loved ones stay away from drugs and alcohol, which have been known to worsen symptoms.
Way said she tried to reach out to some families in Rankin but was met with resistance.
She is hoping things will change for the sake of those suffering.
“Families are crucial in keeping the person here in their own town and own culture,” she said.
Working through the past
There are many people in Rankin who have experienced trauma in their lives and it’s still affecting them because they haven’t dealt with it, said Way.
With posttraumatic stress disorder, the event stays at the forefront of their mind and triggers, such as smell, can cause the person to experience the incident as if it were happening again.
If a person focuses on burying the memory instead of working through it the disorder will worsen.
“The more this kind of post-traumatic stress digs in and goes on for years and years and years, the harder it is to treat,” said Way, adding help doesn’t have to come from the mental health team.
They can talk things through with someone they feel comfortable with.
“It does take time as with any mental struggle.”
Looking for joy
Anxiety and depression are the easiest mental illnesses to help, said Way explaining they usually go hand in hand.
There are many strategies to deal with anxiety and depression but if residents are only seeking help when they’re in crisis they will only get better for a short time.
On the other hand, if they invest the time in getting better they can live a life with happiness and joy, she said.
“If there is sadness and fear always knocking on the door and people are saying ‘no, no you can’t come in’ and joy is way down the line, joy is never going to get in,” she said.
“But if they come and sit with us and we help the sadness and the fear come in and sit and go through because emotion needs to go through, if they help that happen and allow that to happen in a safe place then the door can open for joy.”
Residents who are looking for help are encouraged to visit the mental health team at the old group home on Innukshuk Avenue.
Family members and friends who want to educate themselves about mental illness are also welcome.
In overcoming any sickness, support is key, said Way.
Be a friend to a person with mental illness the same way one would be a friend to someone with a physical illness, she continued.
“You don’t force a person on crutches to walk fast. You wait for a person to take their time and walk beside them,” she said. “A person who is hearing voices you don’t force them to follow the conversation, you slow down and speak in short sentences. You say ‘how are you doing?’ You wait for them to answer.
“You don’t make them be just like everyone else. You accept them just the way they are.”
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