Cape Dorset rallies behind suicide prevention efforts

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Cape Dorset residents aim to stop suicide in their community by encouraging family, friends and neighbours to be their brothers’ keepers.

With a small financial contribution from the hamlet, a group of volunteers called the Suicide Core Group have been asking residents to join their cause by sporting yellow ribbons on their lapels.

“For us the yellow ribbon means we want to stop suicide in the community,” Cindy Parsons, director of the local Social Services department said.

The suicide deaths of two youths last year, within the space of six months, stunned the south Baffin community of 1,200 residents, prompting volunteers to organize a series of public meetings.

Last fall, with the blessing of the hamlet, Cape Dorset joined a U.S-based organization called the Light for Life Foundation, which promotes the involvement of community members in identifying and helping persons at risk.

The non-profit foundation was set up in 1994 by the parents of an American teenager who took his own life, and has since spawned chapters around the world. The Light for Life chapter in Cape Dorset is the first in the Northwest Territories.

Talking openly about suicide in the North is widely considered to be a necessary first step in combatting the often fatal effects of depression and isolation.

Inuit communities like Cape Dorset lead the country in suicide deaths. In Nunavut, with its population of roughly 25,000, suicide has claimed close to 200 souls in the last decade, a rate nearly seven times the national average.

“We were finding that lots of people were knowing that other people were thinking of suicide, but they weren’t telling people about it,” Parsons said. “Or people were thinking about it and not knowing how to ask for help.”

A 1998 study funded by Health Canada suggested that a breakdown in traditional communication among Inuit family members contributed greatly to high levels of emotional distress and unhappiness.

Many depression sufferers who appear happy may in fact be emotionally very unhealthy, Parsons said, and in times of crisis, can be too overwhelmed to ask for help.

As part of Cape Dorset’s yellow-ribbon campaign, residents are being invited to carry pocket-sized “lifeline” cards containing the phone numbers for local crisis-intervention workers.

The cards bear the simple message that people do care and are willing to listen to each other.

The hope is that the cards will provide depression sufferers with a discreet way to signal their distress — to a friend, to a counselor, teacher, clergy or parent — even though they may be unable to put their feelings into words.

“It would be a conversation starter,” Parsons said.

“We’ve told people that they may never have to use the card. I mean if you’re comfortable talking with somebody or you can express how you feel, then you wouldn’t really need to use it.”

Anybody who does receive a yellow-ribbon card, though, is asked to telephone Social Services, the RCMP or the local health centre, and to stay with and listen to the suicidal person until help arrives.

Volunteers began distributing cards in the community two weeks ago, after having them translated into Inuktitut.

Cards were recently given to all high school students, and are available at the Northern and Co-op stores, the health centre, the hamlet office and at Social Services.

“If we help one person because we’ve made an effort, then it’s worth it,” Parsons said.