Day shelter could become mental health facility

KIRSTEN MURPHY

A quiet man with sunken eyes sits on a stool and waits for the day to begin.

While most people sleep, this man spends his nights slumped in a chair or pacing through heated buildings to stay awake — a symptom of being homeless. During the day, he rests at the Pulaarvik mental health day facility. His sometimes erratic behavior prevents him from getting a bed at the Oqota emergency shelter.

The man is one of an estimated 30 hard-to-house men and woman in Nunavut with a longstanding mental illness. The health department’s recent announcement of $2.2 million dedicated to a mental health and addictions strategy is aimed at people like him.

That money, in part, may go to expanding Pulaarvik’s year-old day program into a 24-hour facility for people with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and manic depression. The facility will be the first of its kind in Nunavut. The department of health has yet to announce the exact number of beds, staff and operating budget.

Health minister Ed Picco announced the proposed “24-7” service during a mental health workshop in Iqaluit on May 10.

Adam Kilukishak, program director at Pulaarvik, welcomes the expansion plans.

“We really need it. There are times we have to run around and find people who go off their medication and have breakdowns,” Kilukishak said.

Every Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., a core of about 10 people use the centre. Kilukishak, the lone employee, works closely with mental health outreach worker Gary Dunford.

The drop-in centre is a place to eat breakfast and lunch, watch television, read magazines, make tea and meet with friends.

Time allowing, Kilukishak takes the crew for picnics and “van rides.”

Many of the clients live in subsidized housing or at the Oqota emergency shelter. In extreme cases, Pulaarvik is the only constant roof over their heads and many spend their nights crouched in a corner or roaming around town.

Kilukishak said an overnight service is needed to provide structure and routine otherwise lacking in many client’s lives.

“Nunavut Addictions and Mental Health Strategy,” a long-awaited health department report recommends but does not promise the 24-hour facility will be opened.

“There is a sizable number of chronically mentally [ill] clients who are homeless and are inadequately cared for, with high rates of re-hospitalization…. Stabilization and improvement of their quality of lives can be achieved in a structured facility,” the report says.

Picco said after years of meetings and reports, it was never a case of if an overnight mental health building was needed but when the funding would be available.