Qarmaapik House emerges as a model for family wellness in Nunavik

KUUJJUAQ—Qarmaapik House in Kangiqsualujjuaq has earned a name for itself as a welcoming and safe space for Inuit families in crisis, Quebec’s Viens commission heard last month.

The community-led initiative grew from years of discussion about how Nunavimmiut could take control of the youth protection system, in a region where a high number of children are placed in foster homes outside their home community.

Qarmaapik House serves as a prevention tool and safe house for families in the community of over 900, and has now intervened with dozens of local families, offering them support and counselling.

“Qarmaapik was really created to prevent children being taken away from our families,” Maggie Emudluk, a Qarmaapik board member, told Viens commission hearings in Kuujjuaq on Friday, Nov. 23.

Maggie Emudluk, left, and Hilda Snowball speak before Viens commission hearings in Kuujjuaq Nov. 23. Both helped to found the Qarmaapik family house in Kangiqsulujjuaq, a facility to help local families in crisis. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

The Quebec inquiry, which is looking at how Indigenous groups interact with certain government services, has heard a number of complaints from Nunavimmiut about the province’s heavy-handed youth protection system.

Qarmaapik has been promoted as a positive alternative, where communities serve as the first line of contact for families in need. It’s the second facility of its kind in Nunavik, after Tasiurvik family house in Kuujjuaraapik, which is currently closed for renovations.

In 2016, Qarmaapik applied for and won $700,000 in Arctic Inspiration Prize funding, which allowed the family house to hire more than a dozen staff.

The pilot project’s leaders negotiated an agreement with Nunavik health and social services to allow the family house to be the first to intervene in family crises, offering 24-hour support, counselling, workshops and a space for families to spend up to seven days.

From March 2017 to May 2018, Qarmaapik took in 35 client families, Emudluk told the hearings.

Of that group, 24 came voluntarily, which means they made the call directly to Qarmaapik for help. Another 11 client families were referred by social services or other community partners.

If after seven days at the family house, clients still haven’t been able to work out their problems, those files are handed over to youth protection.

Emudluk didn’t have statistics to confirm that fewer Kangiqsualujjuaq children are being placed in foster homes since the family house opened, but said it appears that number has decreased.

Social services partners also say the service has been beneficial to the community.

“I always ask if the client wants an Inuk counsellor from Qarmaapik; most of the time they agree,” said Lisa Morin, a Kangiqsualujjuaq social worker, in a statement provided to the hearings.

“As soon as the counsellor arrives, 90 per cent of time, the person calms down, cries and talks about what is troubling them.”

Morin said she believes there have also been fewer medevacs in response to suicidal ideation in Kangiqsualujjuaq since Qarmaapik opened.

As a pilot project, it still faces challenges. Emudluk said Qarmaapik workers still hear about some children who are taken directly by youth protection instead of first contacting the family house.

And funding provided through the Arctic Inspiration Prize will run out by March 2019; Qarmaapik’s board of directors hasn’t yet said how it will continue to operate.