Help line hosts national conference
Gathering suicide prevention ideas for a better, healthier future
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Monday, October 31, 2016
NUNAVUT
More than 600 people devoted to suicide prevention from around the world were set to flood the halls of Iqaluit's Inuksuk High School to develop their knowledge and skills Oct. 26 to 29.
Canadian Association of Suicide Prevention's Hope, Help and Healing conference co-chairs Sheila Levy, left, and Charlotte Borg welcomed more than 600 people from Nunavut, Canada and internationally to Iqaluit Oct. 26 to 29. - Michele LeTourneau/NNSL photo |
"The conference is extremely important for Nunavut," said Sheila Levy, executive director for Nunavut's Kamatsiaqtut Help Line, the organization which hosted this year's annual Canadian Association of Suicide Prevention conference.
Levy and co-chair Charlotte Borg work closely together at the help line, and while Levy is a past president of the national association, Borg is currently a board member.
"It's not a summit where everyone is putting forward recommendations," said Levy, adding the hope is people come away with ideas to take home and enhance their own programming and services.
Levy and Borg offer attendee Sarah Jancke of Cambridge Bay as an example.
"She was at the conference 10 years ago and now she is part of the Embrace Life Council," Levy said.
"That conference 10 years ago got her going with suicide prevention. She's somebody who you can see how the conference made a difference in her life and, therefore, she is making a difference in other people's lives."
"Four or five years ago," Borg recalled, "I went to a session given by a presenter who had done research on evidence-based practice on the west coast in reducing suicide. He shared a circle approach to debriefing after a critical incident, if the community is feeling able to do it. I brought that back and it's part of the school crisis response guidelines, now."
Thus, ideas are seeded and spread across the globe to help make positive change toward reducing suicide.
"Suicide isn't the responsibility of any one person or organization or community or territory," Borg said. "Everybody can help make a difference when it comes to suicide prevention, intervention and postvention."
More than 80 speakers were joined by several keynote speakers - including Inuit Taparitsat Kanatami president Natan Obed and Nunavut Inuit Youth Council
president Maatalii Okalik.This is the third such conference hosted by the help line - the previous conferences took place in Iqaluit in 1993 and 2004. The year's theme was Hope, Help and Healing.
A main point of pride regarding the Iqaluit conference is the fact there are really two conferences side by side, something a bit different than those held previously.
"We have a youth conference happening at the same time. On Saturday they will be joining us for the full conference," said Levy.
Borg noted five streams for youth: training to become youth facilitators in bullying prevention, Safe Talk suicide prevention training, understanding family history, self-advocacy, and expressive arts.
A cultural component is included. Arctic College students worked with experts in drum-making, jewelry-making, carving and sewing to hold sessions.
"They will be participating with the keynotes, but then they'll go into their sessions and do their cultural work and be able to speak about issues in their lives and what they can do to help each other and help their communities," said Levy.
At any given hour during the conference, five or six sessions were held simultaneously.
Counseling areas were available for one-on-one or group support.
"A lot of people are still grieving and they need that support, and we're making sure that they get it so that if they are feeling overwhelmed at one of the sessions, they can go to a place where they can grieve," says Levy.
Borg adds the counseling was entirely provided by volunteers from the Iqaluit mental health team, school community counselors from across Nunavut, and two counselors from Arctic College. Services were offered in Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, English and French.
People travelled from across Nunavut, Canada, and as far away as New Zealand and Australia to attend the conference.
