Over the past 20 years, one out of five young Quebecers who died by suicide was Aboriginal, according to a count made by The duty. But in the communities, we refuse to sink into fatalism and we create local tools to thwart the statistics.
Judas was the eldest of a family of six children and lived with his family in a Cree community in Nord-du-Québec. His mother said she was too exhausted to give an interview to the To have tobut she gave her permission to tell the story of her 14-year-old son and the series of mistakes that led to his passing in 2018.
The child has been the subject of 15 reports to the DPJ since the age of three, reports the coroner in his report, dated 2019.
In one of these reports, it is indicated that he was “directly witnessed a suicide attempt by a loved one”. Two other reports concerned “events in which Judas had expressed suicidal intentions”. The last report dated only five days before his death.
“Events demonstrating suicidal intent were of sufficient concern to warrant urgent protective and placement measures pending psychological and/or psychiatric assessment,” the coroner wrote.
“It is not for me to identify what would be his [autres] resources available or to be developed. I can only note that the child did not benefit from the help necessary for his development and his psychological balance,” he concludes.
The Nunavik Strategy
Stories like this, Annie Nulukie has heard many in the northern communities of Nunavik. She herself was directly affected by the suicide of relatives or children with whom she had worked as an educator. In small communities where the traumas add up, the impact of a young person’s suicide has immense consequences.
She has always tried to change things. Today, she serves as the coordinator of the Nunavik Regional Health Authority’s first-ever suicide prevention strategy, released in 2018.
She recognizes it, her team “started from afar”. Because although the situation has long been considered “worrying” north of 55e At the same time, everyone’s efforts to prevent suicide were “in silos”, notes Ms.me Nulukie.
“There were a lot of initiatives in the communities, but it wasn’t necessarily recognized as prevention. Today, we are learning to work together and trying to strengthen the programs that work well. »
The regional committee, which brings together some twenty organizations, has developed a “global vision” which aims to reduce the number of suicides. Since then, he has set up prevention campaigns created especially by and for Nunavimmiut. It trains front-line workers, police officers and teachers by teaching them to better recognize signs of distress and to intervene with people in a suicidal crisis. He added liaison officers who work exclusively on the issue of suicide. And he uses social media to promote help resources in Inuktitut, an Indigenous language.
The priority is to “lift taboos” in communities, to encourage people to ask for help, she explains. But the help available is not always timely. “There are services in each of the 14 communities,” explains Ms.me Nulukie. But the high staff turnover rate and the labor shortage are major challenges. »
She believes that it is necessary to “improve services” and to do so with a long-term vision. “Yes, there are psychologists and professionals, but we also have natural counselors who offer support in their own way, in our mother tongue, and there is a need for these to be recognized at their true value. You have to remember that in our culture, before colonization, we had our own protection system. »
Socio-economic conditions
The Kativik School Board is also getting involved. In 2016, in the wake of a wave of suicides, student support professional positions were created. The incumbents would do prevention, intervention and postvention directly in the schools.
Their presence has benefits, says Jasmine John, assistant director of complementary and compassionate services at the school board.
But to date, only 13 of the 18 primary and secondary schools in Nunavik are benefiting from this assistance. “In a crisis situation, we can bring in a professional from another community by plane, but they are not there all year round to do prevention in the classrooms,” she laments.
The problem, she says, is not necessarily finding people to do the job, but the lack of housing in some communities, which prevents new hiring. The housing crisis in the communities comes up again and again in the interviews. Overcrowded houses cause several social problems that affect the physical and psychological health of citizens.
“The issue of suicide in Nunavik is complex and stems from several risk factors, including social inequities, historical trauma, hurt families, early adversity, mental distress, overcrowded homes, acute stress and numerous losses », explains Annie Nulukie.
Promote well-being
We have to work on all these elements if we want things to change, also notes the DD Lucie Nadeau, psychiatrist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, who has been consulting in Nunavik since 2008. But we must not forget to “nurture hope”, she reminds us.
“In any situation, there are risk factors and protective factors,” she adds. We know that if we work more on the protective factors, it can bring more benefits than working only on the risk factors. And it may even have more weight. »
Protective factors, which aim to promote the well-being, pride and resilience of Nunavimmiut through cultural or traditional activities, for example, are central to Nunavik’s suicide prevention strategy. Thus, we rely heavily on activities in the territory, which is considered a place of healing. Fishing and hunting allow young people to put down roots and share quality time with their families, which has an impact on the future.
By working on all these aspects, the coordinator of the Nunavik Regional Health Authority’s suicide prevention strategy, Annie Nulukie, is hopeful of succeeding in reversing the trend: “We are aiming for a better future. »
With Sandrine Vieira