Salluit man organizing working group on suicide

MONTREAL — Faced with a growing number of suicides in their region, Nunavimmiut are reacting with renewed concern and action.

Since November, Mark Okituk, a mental health worker in Salluit, has been rallying support for a new working group on suicide in Nunavik.

Okituk would like this group to plan healing and information sessions, and work with such organizations as the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention.

“It’s just not getting any better,” Okituk told Nunatsiaq News from his home in Salluit.

From 1980 to 1996 there were 84 suicides in Nunavik. Last year there were 18 suicides, the highest number ever recorded.

“We don’t have statistics for the years since then, but if you look just at last year, you can see that there were more than 100 suicides since 1980,” Okituk said. “It’s too many.”

The most recent death occurred over the Christmas holidays, when a teenage boy killed himself in Umiujaq.

In Kuujjuaq, the community with the most services and employment opportunities in Nunavik, there were eight suicides in 1999.

According to police, there were also more than 60 unsuccessful suicide attempts in Nunavik.

“It’s time to wake up and time to help,” said Kativik Regional Police chief Brian Jones.

The Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services already has a suicide prevention program underway.

Annie Gordon, the board’s program director for suicide and sexual abuse, said new radio spots and pamphlets on how to spot depression and prevent suicide are in the works.

The board is also seeking support for a new three-year training program in suicide prevention. They say they welcome any partnership with the new working group.

“It’s a community problem,” Gordon said. “Everyone should get involved.”

In the early 1990s, Nunavimmiut tried to respond to youth suicide by starting up peer group counselling programs in Puvirnituq and Inukjuak. But these efforts floundered.

Those involved later concluded that suicide prevention needs a large dose of emotional and financial support from communities and elected leaders if it is to be successful.

The new working group, which already has more than 18 members from 13 regional organizations, was to hold its first meeting this week in Kuujjuaq.

Okituk is convinced that people are ready to talk about suicide again in Nunavik.

“As long as we don’t talk about it, it’s not going to get any better. With all these deaths here, there is a lot of hurt and pain,” Okituk said. “I want the readers of Nunatsiaq News to know that I feel for them because it also reminds me of the family and friends who are no longer with us.”