Workshop aims to make family part of the solution

KIRSTEN MURPHY

Surviors of incest, domestic beatings and substance abuse often receive substandard treatment if family members are excluded from the rehabilitation process, family rights advocates say.

Arlene Hache, an outspoken feminist and executive director of the Yellowknife Women’s Centre, was in Iqaluit from Jan. 20 to 24 to promote the idea of family members as primary healers and interveners when dealing with cases of health, social services, education and justice.

“We’re not talking about anything different than what elders have talked about forever,” Hache said.

“The general efforts of the government are mis-targeting. Addictions treatment programs, for example, deal with symptoms but not with the trauma causing people’s behavior.”

Hache and co-presenter Betty Daley organized the workshop on behalf of WINGS (Women in the North Generating Solutions). Only six people attended. The low attendance was attributed to last-minute advertising and the $500 fee. Hache said pre-arranged funding is possible for people who want to attend a similar workshop Feb. 3 to 7.

Nunavut is an ideal place for the family participation discussion, Hache said, because of the territory’s high rates of crime, abuse and health problems.

“Nunavut is in a much better place than other provinces or territories that are already so entrenched in [government rules and regulations]. The problem is you have systems inserting themselves into that natural process and it’s created tonnes and tonnes of difficulties. Nunavut might have an opportunity to do something innovative,” she said.

“We’ve been talking about these problems for 30 years. They are not new but it isn’t for me to say communities need help. The communities need to say that.”

The time has come to learn from past mistakes, Daley said, pointing to Davis Inlet, Labrador, where Innu youth were sent South for treatment for gasoline sniffing. Once weaned off the noxious gas, the youth went home and returned to their old habits.

Daley said that if families and friends had been included in the reintegration process, the youths might not have returned to sniffing.

The family-first theory says regardless what problems people face — violence, substance abuse or gambling — family members are in the best position to offer consistent support to help a person recover.

Ideally, this theory will infiltrate government policies and procedures.

“Our goal is that social workers or justice or health will approach families in a different and respectful, inclusive way. A way that would change the way families are helped. Right now the tendency is to have a very tiny mandate toward including family members. Justice will focus on the person who committed the crime and not put a lot of energy into the rest of the family. With education, people meet around the needs of the child and pay attention to the family’s financial situation,” Hache said.

Both women are expecting an uphill battle. “Overall, there’s not much in place. And that’s the whole endeavor of the family support movement is to get a person in place to pull the threads together,” Hache said.

The next workshop focuses on advocating for people with disabilities and their families.

Invitations to hold the workshop in other communities will be happily accepted, Hache said.

For more information or to register call Betty Daley at 613-359-5557.