Student tackles alcoholism with a study
Deninu School's Laney Beaulieu continuing research into the disease again sends her to national science fair
DENINU KU'E/FORT RESOLUTION
Northern News Services
Monday, April 10, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Deninu School student's winning science fair project on alcoholism will again compete at the national science fair next month.
Laney Beaulieu, Grade 12 student at Deninu School, will take a science project on alcoholism to this year's national Canada-Wide Science Festival for the second consecutive year. - photo courtesy of Kristina Gerk |
Laney Beaulieu, Grade 12, began looking at alcoholism in her community for the school's science fair last year.
The project earned Beaulieu and her partner, Isaac Simon, a bronze medal at the Canada-Wide Science Festival in Montreal in May, 2016.
This year, Beaulieu expanded the project, interviewing more community members and identifying more risk factors associated with alcoholism.
The new project won the regional science fair at Deninu School on March 30, which means Beaulieu will again compete at the Canada-Wide Science Festival in Regina, Sask. in May.
"I think alcoholism is a problem in the community," Beaulieu said. "It's something that affects most people in the North and it's a very important issue to me and other northerners."
Beaulieu surveyed more than 90 Fort Resolution residents about their alcohol use, as well as the risk factors associated with moderate and severe alcoholism.
Increasing the project's scope allowed Beaulieu to hypothesize the correlation between alcoholism and four themes; demographic, residential schools, mental health and early life events.
"I found significant risk factors I wasn't even considering last year, I didn't really consider mental health last year," Beaulieu said. "This year I looked at ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), which was found to be significant.
"Also early life events, like witnessing physical violence, I didn't look at those last year."
Beaulieu used the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, to determine each risk factor.
After looking at the information from the surveys, Beaulieu found there were seven significant factors among moderate and severe alcoholics in Fort Resolution.
Being between the ages of 26 and 30, having grandparents who attended residential school, having a history of ADHD, feeling isolated from peers, economic insecurity during childhood, witnessing alcoholic parties in the home as a child and experiencing alcoholic parties in the home at least once a month during childhood were all identified as significant risk factors, according to Beaulieu's report.
After analyzing the data and comparing it to other studies, Beaulieu found the risk factors in Fort Resolution were similar to those in the rest of Canada and the U.S.
She then created a list of recommendations to help tackle
the factors contributing to alcohol abuse in her community.
The first recommendation is to hire a full-time psychiatrist in Fort Resolution, who could diagnose mental illness including anxiety and ADHD.
"Right now there is one official mental health worker who comes to the community four days a month," Beaulieu said. "Four days a month is obviously disproportionate to the needs of the community, which are quite extensive."
The next recommendation is to address the intergenerational trauma of residential schools. Beaulieu proposed establishing a program based on a University of Calgary study that developed a unique treatment plan specifically geared toward intergenerational trauma as the result of residential schools.
The remaining suggestions are to develop programs to combat household financial insecurity, as well as community development projects that could help reduce the number of alcoholic-fuelled parties.
Beaulieu also recommended that a public meeting including the Hamlet of Fort Resolution, the Deninu Kue First Nation chief and council and the Fort Resolution Metis Council take place annually.
"These strengthened channels of communication can help to foster unified leadership within the community and therefore reduce economic insecurity, which would, in turn, circumvent future moderate/severe alcoholism," the report said.
It was both Beaulieu's research and her knowledge of the subject matter that earned her the fair's top spot, said Valentina de Krom, head of Aurora College's bachelor of education program and longtime science fair judge.
"She's a strong communicator, it was very well written and she's well spoken," de Krom said. "She's certainly very confident with her topic and was able to address all the questions we asked her."
De Krom saw Beaulieu's original project at last year's Canada-Wide Science Festival and was impressed by the project's progression.
"It's ongoing research that she's been involved with," she said.
"For a young student, that's showing quite a bit of professional growth."
Beaulieu said she plans to distribute the report to the individuals who participated in the survey and wants to make it available everyone in the community.
"Im very, very thankful that people took the time to take the survey, especially about something so personal," she said.
In the meantime, Beaulieu is getting prepared for the upcoming Canada-Wide Science Festival.
De Krom said she knows Beaulieu is up to the task and believes she will also be an excellent ambassador not only for the school and her community, but for the whole territory.
"I think she is going to represent, certainly this division very well, and the North," de Krom said.
