Voices to gather on suicide
Strategy partners prepare to hear from communities at summit with prevention in mind
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, April 18, 2016
NUNAVUT
Getting people together next month to talk about suicide is being seen as an important next step towards prevention.
The partners of the Nunavut Suicide Prevention Strategy are scheduled to host a suicide prevention summit May 4 to 6 in Iqaluit.
Embrace Life Council president David Lawson, RCMP V Division Insp. Dean Warr, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. vice-president James Eetoolook and Premier Peter Taptuna gather in advance of the Nunavut Suicide Prevention Summit scheduled for May 4 to 6.
- photo courtesy Government of Nunavut |
"The more organizations, the more individuals are involved - it can go a long ways in preventing suicide," said Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. vice-president James Eetoolook.
"NTI is currently working on the suicide prevention summit. The summit will bring together community people involved in suicide prevention work from across Nunavut."
The planned summit is in response to the jury recommendations that came from the inquest into the high rate of suicide in the territory last September. In an effort to encourage the Government of Nunavut to re-commit to the existing suicide prevention strategy, the jury recommended consultations with regional Inuit associations, non-government agencies and other stakeholders.
The jury also recommended the suicide prevention implementation committee hold bi-annual conferences with stakeholders to review best practices and identify gaps, which Eetoolook says the summit will do.
"The priority is implementing the jury recommendations from the coroner's inquest," said Eetoolook.
The implementation committee is made up of representatives from the suicide prevention partnership: Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the Government of Nunavut, the RCMP and Isaksimagit Inuusirmi Katujjiqatigiit (Embrace Life Council).
The GN took a big hit at the inquest for a variety of reasons, including a lack of political will and lack of funding for the strategy.
Asked if NTI has seen increased forward momentum since the partnership has been meeting post-inquest, Eetoolook said yes.
"There has been a lot of forward momentum post-inquest," he said. "We have seen commitments of political will from all partners. This is good."
As Eetoolook points out, there is now a position within the Government of Nunavut that oversees the implementation of the jury recommendations. The partners, says Eetoolook, have re-committed to working on suicide prevention on a daily basis.
The partnership released a 2016-17 action plan - Resiliency Within - on March 7. Absent from the plan are financial commitments.
"We have cabinet approval for the Government of Nunavut work in (this action plan). NTI has their approval for their work. And we have the budgets identified internally for our pieces and the go-ahead to do the work," said Karen Kabloona, the assistant deputy minister for the Quality of Life file at the Department of Health.
Kabloona was appointed shortly after Premier Peter Taptuna called suicide in Nunavut a crisis last fall after the inquest.
"We also recognize that the MLAs - that's their role, to approve Government of Nunavut budgets - so we're going to approach the MLAs in the May/June session with a supplementary appropriation," Kabloona said.
A supplementary appropriation is additional budget authority provided for activities or requirements too urgent to be delayed until the next periodic or regular appropriation.
The GN is working with NTI on planning the May summit.
The goal of the summit is to have communities identify the longer-term action plan, said Kabloona.
"That is a commitment in the strategy. That was the intent all along but we realize it's really hard to do. It is happening now, but we want to do more. That's what the jury recommended, as well," she said.
"That work started with NTI and will continue after the summit, but the summit is to get people here so we can learn face to face from other people in communities."
The disconnect, or lack of communication, between individual communities and headquarters was not only clearly identified at the inquest but also in an independent review of the suicide prevention strategy.
"It's a work in progress," said Kabloona. "It's worthwhile. It takes a long time. But it's probably the most effective thing we will do in the next five years - working with communities, supporting what they're trying to do."
