Kids Help Phone looks to reach more Inuit

With a high number of crisis-related texts coming from Nunavut, Kids Help Phone’s leadership says it is trying to expand the organization’s outreach efforts in the North.

Kids Help Phone president and CEO Katherine Hay was in Iqaluit Tuesday to announce that the organization is renewing its action plan to provide free virtual mental health services to Inuit, First Nations and Métis youth.

Some of the items in that action plan, titled Finding Hope, include a volunteer Inuk crisis responder to respond to text messages and online mental health resources in six Indigenous languages, including Inuktitut.

“Kids Help Phone is working towards building a relationship with the Inuit communities all across Inuit Nunangat,” said Billie Joe Barnes, the organization’s Inuit engagement co-ordinator, in an interview.

Barnes is Inuk from Iqaluit, but now lives in Carleton Place, Ont., southwest of Ottawa.

“I think the youth and younger children will start to see that Kids Help Phone is available to all Canadians including Indigenous and Inuit as soon as we have the resources, and if there’s a need, we’ll try to meet it,” she said.

In a series of remarks, Hay highlighted some statistics which illustrate some of the calls Kids Help Phone has responded to in the North and in other Indigenous communities.

Kids Help Phone has communicated by text with 47,800 Indigenous youth since 2019, Hay said, with conversations covering relationships, isolation and depression, among other topics. Nunavut youth account for a high number of those texts.

“Right here in Nunavut, we see the most texting conversations in all of Canada about suicide. Thirty-one per cent of all young people from Nunavut who connect with Kids Help Phone by text, talk to us about suicide,” Hay said.

“There is not equity in mental health care in Canada and specifically in the North.”

Kids Help Phone leaders speak in Iqaluit Tuesday to announce a renewed “action plan” to support Indigenous youth. From left: Kids Help Phone director of Indigenous initiatives and equity programs Deanna Dunham, Indigenous Advisory Council and board of directors member Carole Shankaruk, president and CEO Katherine Hay, and Nunavut Family Services Minister Margaret Nakashuk. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)

Hay did not provide the exact numbers of Nunavut or Inuit texts or calls.

Barnes said she is trying to fill those gaps on a community level, by communicating with GN and Inuit organization representatives in each of the communities.

She said that as northern communities become more connected to the internet, Kids Help Phone will be able to provide more online resources to Inuit youth, which include information about healthy relationships and managing stress, for example.

“There are a lot of people and social issues, young people that sometimes don’t have those coping skills, and we give that accessibility to that program,” Barnes said.

“With the internet and connectivity becoming more, we’re hoping instead of sending communities USBs, that all communities will have access to the internet and a good connection so that they can deliver the programs in all the classrooms, face to face, [or] on a Zoom call.”

Barnes said she was happy to have her colleagues visit her home community.

Her colleagues shared that same sentiment, about wanting to help Nunavut youth in need of those services.

“We’re here for the long road and and we have always been supporting Inuit youth,” said Deanna Dunham, Kids Help Phone’s director of Indigenous initiatives and equity programs.

“We will continue and our services will continue to evolve to best support all young people across Canada.”