Nunavut's suicide prevention strategy fails to meet goals: report

A report on Nunavut's suicide prevention strategy and action plan says that while some progress is being made in the territory, the plan is not meeting its mandate.

"Unfortunately the overall vision for the NSPS is not being achieved at this time," states the June 2015 report by Aarluk Consulting Inc.

"There is no evidence that rates of suicide in Nunavut are decreasing, and for the most part, partners and stakeholders do not believe that other components of the vision (i.e. de-normalizing suicide, providing safe and nurturing environments for children) are being met — though many feel that some progress is being made."

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Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. says a lack of dedicated funding and high turnover of staff have prevented the territory from meeting the action plans' goals.  

"I'm not meaning to be disrespectful, but I want to see things happen," says Natan Obed, director of NTI's department of social and cultural development, at Nunavut's suicide inquest. 

When the action plan was tabled, Obed said there was no specific outside funding attached to accomplishing the goals of the plan and no one specifically employed by any of the partners to work solely on the strategy.

Some of the goals, which were meant to be set, were "recast as aspirational."

He says the government of Nunavut's complex decision-making matrix has made it difficult to move forward.

Because of the high turnover of staff in Nunavut, the government representatives at the table change regularly and are not able to speak on behalf of all the right departments.

Limited progress being made

The report, commissioned by the strategy's partners, concludes that positive results have been achieved in a few areas, including strengthening mental health services, better equipping youth with skills to cope with adverse life events and negative emotions, and delivering suicide intervention training.

Other positive outcomes of the suicide prevention strategy, according to the report, include more cooperation and collaboration among GN front line service delivery workers; increased mental health professional capacity in Nunavut communities; and an increased capacity of those who work with youth to deliver mental health first aid.

As part of the strategy the report noted that there has been widespread delivery of various suicide prevention and anti-violence and anti-bullying training to education staff, front line service workers, community organizations and others.

The report noted that there are still a number of areas within the suicide prevention strategy that need improvement.

'Establishment of a Nunavut suicide research agenda and holding a research symposium are not being met," states the report.

Nunavut's suicide prevention strategy is also lacking when it comes to "communication, including establishing an overall communications plan/strategy," states the report.

The report also concluded that the territory failed to deliver on a commitment to bolster early childhood development tools and school curriculum related to suicide prevention.

The territory is also falling short when is comes to support for communities to engage in community development activities and help for communities to access flexible funding opportunities for programs.

The evaluation report has put forward 42 recommendations on how to move forward with suicide prevention work in Nunavut.

The recommendations include procedural tweaks intended to improve communication, collaboration and engagement of the various stakeholders involved in the strategy. The report also suggests more sustainable funding to deliver programs, services and training more effectively.