N.W.T. gov't needs to reckon with issues contributing to suicides of young people, says health minister

The N.W.T.'s health minister says the territory needs a "whole-of-government" response to address a spike in suicides this year.

Earlier this week, chief coroner Garth Eggenberger released data on suicides from 2021 and the first nine months of 2022. In that period, 29 people died by suicide — eighteen of them this year.

Deaths by suicide have increased "dramatically" in the Beaufort Delta region, Eggenberger said.

Health Minister Julie Green spoke with Loren McGinnis on The Trailbreaker Wednesday morning to discuss the latest numbers and what the territory is doing to address the situation.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What was your reaction to these numbers that were released of this increased rate of suicide in the territory this year?

I found it devastating to think that we had lost so many young people in so short a time. I sort of was keeping a tally in my head based on what I'd heard, but it was a bigger number than I anticipated. And it's shocking. And I certainly want to take just a moment to express my deepest sympathies to the families and communities who have lost young people to suicide in the last two years, and over years and years before that. It is a devastating loss and it's going to take a lot of healing to put those communities back on their feet.

What's the work being done in Tuktoyaktuk?

I have developed a relationship with [Mayor Erwin Elias] in this role and so when there was the second suicide in September, he called me and we had a conversation about what he thought his community needed at that point. What he wanted was counsellors to go in. So the [Northwest Territories Health and Social Services Authority] Beaufort Delta region is very fortunate to have a [chief operating officer] who's lived there for 30 years and is married to someone from Tuk. She dropped everything and drove to Tuk, talked to the leadership and made a short-term plan to deal with the immediate aftermath of the suicide, and then went back at the end of the week to start working on a longer-term plan.

In the meantime, I was talking to him about the Suicide Prevention Fund application his community was making. He felt that it would be very useful to have an inspirational speaker there, and so they moved very quickly on that and Jordin Tootoo arrived in the community earlier in the week, which was their choice of someone they felt would connect with youth and would provide inspiration to people who are grieving.

One thing Mayor Elias flagged is that the young people he's talking to don't want to talk to someone they don't know, either on the phone or in-person. What are you doing to make sure there are long-term supports in the community?

That's a really difficult problem because we are working from a clinical model. We expect people to have post-secondary education to take up counselling positions, and that often means it's not local people. And one of the things that I know is true is that people would rather speak to their own counsellors, notwithstanding some concerns about confidentiality and being very close in small communities.

That's one of the reasons the department funded the Rhodes Wellness College, Dene Warriors, was so that their local people would get counselling, training — and quite a number of them graduated. We set up a fund for communities to hire them, so we're trying to adapt to a community-based approach.

I just want to mention here that the Inuvialuit Suicide Strategy — which in English is called Moving Forward, Healing Together — really makes a strong point about community-based and local resources to respond to crises of this type. They don't necessarily want someone to parachute in and work with them unless that's somebody they've chosen themselves, like the Tłı̨chǫ did, choosing Poundmaker's for their grief workshops following their tragedies in July.

Why do you think this is happening?

I wish I had a simple answer for that. I know that depression plays a big role here, that addictions can play a role here. It loosens people's natural caution, and we do know that addictions have been a driver in suicides.

Then there are the macro-level issues, like intergenerational trauma and and poor housing, educational opportunities that don't seem to bring people out of poverty. It's very complicated. It really requires a whole-of-government response to understand all the different drivers and to try and and respond to them the best we can.

Intergenerational trauma is a huge issue, and I just don't know how we're going to make a dent in that when the trauma is so fresh and so repeated. It may have started with a suicide generations ago and, you know, suicides in this generation, so that people are in a constant state of grieving and trauma. It's just so difficult.

You had rejected the characterization that the territory is in a mental health crisis. How do you reconcile that with where we're at right now?

The situation is a crisis for the families and the communities — there's no question about that. We have statistics that mental health hospitalizations, for example, have gone up, and that the pandemic has been especially hard for young adults. So, you know, I could call it a crisis. I'm not sure how that would change the situation. I feel like it's a word that when it's applied to Child and Family Services, housing, education, graduation rates, it kind of loses its meaning.

What I want people to know is that this is the most important issue that we're dealing with, and we have lots of resources. We've never had more resources to put into mental health. The issue that we're finding is that we're having trouble connecting people with those resources. The uptake is not as good as we would like it to be.

What do you mean?

We have community counselling, for example, in every community that's either in-person or virtual or on an itinerant visiting schedule. And it's not that those people aren't busy when they go to communities, but it's more that we often hear that people are not connecting with helping resources. They don't see it as for them, they don't know it's there, they don't think it's helpful, they don't think that they need that particular kind of help. There's just a disconnect there between all the things that we have on offer and the amount of uptake.

I feel that that's an area that we really need to focus on, and maybe the answer there is to take up what Erwin and others have said, which is to provide more locally-based, locally-trained people and resources to assist communities.

It's not an easy problem to solve and it's not going to be quick, but it's something that we really need to reckon with and make changes.

I want to move into a question about prevention. What is the department doing now to prevent suicides in the first place?

Well, the most significant thing that I think we're doing is offering community counselling programs, the helplines, we have child and youth care counsellors in the schools. We have community-based funds like the Suicide Prevention Fund, which communities can access for whatever programming they feel would be useful. Maybe that's bringing in Jordin Tootoo, maybe it's bringing in Poundmaker's.

We have a lot of different things on the go, but we're still in a position where we're all grieving the loss of these young people. There often are not notes that explain the despair the person is experiencing, you know what I mean? Sometimes the suicides are a surprise to the family, so it's really hard to drill down into what was the cause of despair that tipped this person over the edge.

Life promotion is a term used by the Canadian Association of Suicide Prevention to describe initiatives that foster a sense of connection, meaning and purpose, and reduce suicide or suicidal behaviour. When you hear that, what do you think about in terms of what the department is doing and can do?

Well, this is where I think really the whole of government needs to be involved. So what I learned about Tuk is that people in that age group who have been the most affected, they aren't youth and they're not getting access to youth programs. And they're not adults in the way that they want to access adult programs. So there's kind of a gap there — no gathering space, no particular programming.

This is a group that seems to be at a bit of a loose end, you could say. And so I think that we should talk to those people in that age group and find out what they want. What would help them feel more connected to one another and to the community? What kind of help would bolster them up and and give them confidence? And act on those things.

It's been about 10 years since the last big suicide spike, and we have developed the intervention and prevention network to assist communities with that. But I think that when you have it in theory and when there is a spike in suicides like there is now, it's a good idea to revisit what it is that we're doing and what communities say they need, and see to what extent all of government can respond with something that's more robust.

And I'll just say again, a great starting point for the Beaufort Delta is the Inuvialuit Suicide Strategy, which is a branch of the National Inuit Strategy. It talks about community connection, family connections, and how to develop strong communities and strong relationships so that people feel valued and they feel their lives are valued.

If you or someone you know is struggling, here's where to get help:

• In the Northwest Territories, reach the NWT Help Line 24/7 at 1-800-661-0844. 
• Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566 (phone) | 45645 (text between 4 p.m. and midnight ET).
• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 (phone), live chat counselling on the website.
• Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour crisis centre.

This guide from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health outlines how to talk about suicide with someone you're worried about.