Inuit in Northern Quebec look to local solutions to tackle suicide

To an outsider theday mightlooklike any other winter day in Kuujjuaq, the administrative capital of Quebec's Inuit territory, 1,440 kilometres by air due north of Montreal.

It's late winter, andthe roads are still a thick layer ofsnow and ice.

At lunchtime, kids at the local school rush home in sneakers despite the 15 degreeweather.

Since mid-December, this community has lost young peoplenot much older than theseto suicide.Two were 15, two were 18, and one was 20.

• Nunavik village grieving 5 youth suicides in 3 months

• Inuit among groups at higher risk of suicidal thoughts, says Statistics Canada

Less than 24 hours afterthe last funeral, Valerie Lock and Minnie Grey, two people who want to prevent more deaths, sat down in the offices of the Nunavik Health Board toto talk to CBC about the issue.

"Suicide is a problem in Nunavik, and so we were just trying to find things that could help," saidLock, who chairs the regional suicide prevention committee.

She is one of four certified trainers fora program calledASIST, which stands forApplied Suicide Intervention Skills Training.

The first time you say the sentence, it's very difficult... Are you thinking about suicide?- Valerie Lock, chair of Nunavik'ssuicide prevention committee

Lock and the other trainers are Inuit. They havenow taught those skills to more than 200 other Inuit since they started giving sessions about 18 months ago.

She saidthe sessions areintimate encounters, where people share stories andlearn to go straight to the point about being suicidal.

"The first time you say the sentence, it's very difficult," she says."It was very difficult for me when I first took the ASIST training to actually say that sentence out loud: 'Are you thinking about suicide?'"

Lock said after asking that question, other questionsfollow.

"Then you have to get that person reasons for living, and you have to listen to their reasons for dying in order to do that."

Language of suicide

One of the challengesin Nunavikis navigating the language around suicide, explained Minnie Grey.

Grey is a fixture in the community who has been a negotiator, hospital director, editor, consultant and,twice now, the executive director of theNunavikHealth and Social Services Board.

"InInuktitut,we've had issues with terminology," Grey said."Imminiartukmeans taking one's own life. So in order to be more empathetic, sympathetic also to the people who have gone through the hurt of suicide, we try to use less harsh words, such as, 'Don't cut life off.'"

Grey said the difficulty in talking about suicide relates to some of the first European religious groups who made contact with theInuit in the early19th century.

"They believed if you took your own life, you're going to burn in hell. That's basically what the Inuit were taught by the missionaries," Grey said.

Others in the community fear thattalking about suicide can be seen as an encouragement to act on it.

But talking about itand talking about it in Inuktitutisatthe heart of the two-day program. ASIST, whichwas conceived in Calgary 30 years ago, includes training material and videos that have been translated.

They believed if you took your own life, you're going to burn in hell. That's basically what the Inuit were taught by the missionaries- Minnie Grey

Lock says she's been hearing success stories since she started giving the training a year and a half ago.During her last workshop, several people in the room had lost someone they love.

"These ladies really opened up and left so much stuff off their shoulders. They were really thankful,and they understand it a bit more." Lock said.

Solutions have to come from within

Valerie Lock and Minnie Grey stress thateveryone is working together to helpthat that isthe Inuit way.They also said that help has to come from within.

"It's not to say Inuit versusnon-Inuit. It's just that historically, we have many good people who come with good hearts. But those people will leave and with the high turnover rates that we have, a lot of our intervenors won't stay," Grey said. "It's better to build up the base of Inuit working with Inuit."

Lock said there are sensitive moments in the ASIST training, and it is important for people to feel comfortable with the trainers.

"This is home, and nobody can understand the reality of our situation more than us."

Last fall, Nunavik held its first-ever regional conference on suicide prevention. It was called puttautiit whichmeans "life jacket."

Holding that conference was part of a overall plan health officials drew up more than three years ago.Almost everything in that plan has been put in place.

While Lock saidshe sees the pain and hurt in people's eyes because of the five suicides, she also feels a sense of hope.

"We can't give up. We have to continue doing whatever we can to change the situation in Nunavik."

1-(800) 265-3333 isa helplinewithInuktitutspeakersbased in Nunavut.It isopen from 7 a.m. ET until midnight ET.

Quebec's suicide prevention helpline is1-(866)-277-3553 and is open 24 hours a day.