Aglukkaq announces $2.4 million for mental health work among Nunavut youth
“I have seen how difficult it can be for small or remote communities to deal with mental health issues”
Leona Aglukkaq, the national health minister and Gwen Healey, the executive director of the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre, speak to reporters Feb. 4 in Iqaluit. Aglukkaq announced a $2.4 million contribution that the Public Health Agency of Canada will give the Qaujigiartiit centre over the next five years. (PHOTO BY JIM BELL)
Before an audience of about two dozen Iqaluit teenagers gathered inside the Arctic Winter Games youth centre, Leona Aglukkaq, the national health minister, on Feb. 4 announced a $2.4 million boost to a regional research program that’s aimed at improving the mental health of Nunavut youth.
“As a northerner, I have seen how difficult it can be for small or remote communities to deal with mental health issues affecting our young people. And it also pains me to say the suicide rate in Nunavut is highest among young people, and this has to change,” Aglukkaq said.
Over the next five years, the Public Health Agency of Canada will distribute the $2.4 million to an independent Iqaluit-based organization called the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre.
The centre, which started up in 2006 to promote local health research, will use the funds to do research and mental health promotion activities in eight Nunavut communities, including Iqaluit, using approaches that are consistent with Inuit culture.
This includes summer camps for children aged nine to 12 in six communities, the recruitment of young people to help do mental health research, and activities aimed at bringing health professionals together with families and community members.
They’ll also produce a mental health education program for parents called “Nobody’s Perfect.”
Gwen Healey, the executive director of the Qaujigiartiit centre, said the program will help her organization build upon work they’ve already been doing: the creation of evidence-based health programs for children, youth and parents that fit the realities of Nunavut.
“For example, youth camps are an integral part of life in Nunavut. I was born and raised here in Iqaluit… and youth camps were an important part of my childhood,” Healey said.
More than half of Nunavut’s population of 32,000 is under the age of 30, with nearly a third between the ages of five and 18.
At the same time, the territory’s young population suffers more deaths by suicide per capita than any other jurisidiction. In 2010, 27 Nunavut residents, most of them young, died by suicide.
Aglukkaq said that before this can change, Nunavut must create conditions that support mental health and to reduce barriers that prevent people from finding mental health services.
And she said the Public Health Agency’s approach is consistent with a position taken by Canada’s health ministers at a meeting last fall, when they issued a declaration on health promotion and disease prevention.
For more information on the Qaujigiartiit Health Research Centre, view this website: http://www.qhrc.ca.
(More to follow)
