Pubdate: Fri, 26 Mar 2004
Source: Nunatsiaq News (CN NU)
Copyright: 2004 Nortext Publishing Corporation
Contact:  http://www.nunatsiaq.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/694
Author: Greg Younger-Lewis
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

NUNAVIK ADDICTION GOES UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

Advisors Say Study Will Help Inuit Around The World

Advisors to a research team in Nunavik hope a study beginning this month 
will lead to better treatment facilities for Inuit alcoholics and drug addicts.

The study, which will take up to three years to complete, specifically 
targets youth, in hopes of better understanding their attitudes towards 
drug and alcohol.

A team of researchers from L'universite du Quebec a Trois-Rivieres will 
meet with students, ranging in age from 11 to 18, at Jaanimmarik School in 
Kuujjuaq this week, to ask them about their habits and feelings related to 
drugs and alcohol.

The researchers hope to compile the results by September, and continue 
their work in three other Nunavik villages, including in-depth interviews 
with parents and community leaders.

Pierre Rioux, drug and substance abuse officer at the Nunavik Regional 
Board of Health and Social Services, said the study results will provide a 
tool to assess the needs of the region.

"Nunavik is poor in terms of data about substance abuse," he said. "We 
really have no data. We have opinions, prejudices, misconceptions and so 
on. Everyone agrees it [substance abuse] is a problem in Nunavik, but to 
what extent, no one has any idea."

The research team completed the first part of the study in April, but found 
their research was based on outdated data that didn't focus on any issues 
that might be unique to the Inuit, Rioux said.

Even then, results showed Nunavik suffered a 43-per-cent addiction rate, 
compared to 13 per cent in the South. This suggests nearly half of 
Nunavimmiut drank alcohol or used drugs in a way that could be described as 
addictive.

"That's an example of one indicator of how bad we need services dealing 
with drug use," Rioux said, adding that new statistics will enable the 
regional government to lobby other governments for additional funding.

Rioux, a recovering alcoholic who quit drinking eight years ago, said 
another advantage of the study will be to remove the taboo about discussing 
drugs and alcohol in Nunavik.

The study questionnaires will be anonymous, but the results will allow 
government to educate people more about the nature of addiction, Rioux said.

"People tend to believe users are doing that because of lack of will," 
Rioux said. "It's an issue that's surrounded by shame and guilt because 
people don't know it's a disability, and they isolate themselves.

"Rather than keep it [addiction] in the shadows, we will bring it out in 
the open."

Besides Kuujjuaq, researchers also plan to go to two villages on the Hudson 
coast, and another community on Ungava Bay. Rioux expects the results will 
show a need for more support services in the communities for residents who 
have gone through a detoxification program, but find it difficult to avoid 
returning to past, abusive habits.

More statistics on substance abuse in Nunavik will mean the region can 
lobby for more funding for the region's only treatment centre, described by 
its own board chair as "dilapidated" and lacking staff.

Dave Forrest, head of the board for the Isuarsivik centre in Kuujjuaq, said 
the 60-year-old building needs to be renovated or completely replaced.

Forrest said the centre mainly takes patients from Nunavut, which lacks a 
treatment centre, and also needs an in-house nurse and psychologist.

"We're always clawing and scraping by," Forrest said of the centre's finances.

But if the study leads to boosted funding for the centre, Forrest said 
improved drug and alcohol treatment in Kuujjuaq would be a victory for 
Inuit across the Northern hemisphere.

"We're separated by artificial boundaries. The Inuit are Inuit whether 
they're in Nunavut, the former Soviet Union, western Arctic or Greenland," 
Forrest said. "This is a problem around the circumpolar world."

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a federal funding agency for 
health research, provided $225,000 for the study, expected to produce an 
overarching report based on results from the four communities in 2007.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom