Unikkaartuit: Meanings of Well‐Being, Unhappiness, Health, and Community Change Among Inuit in Nunavut, Canada

Abstract

Suicide among young Inuit in the Canadian Arctic is at an epidemic level. In order to understand the distress and well-being experienced in Inuit communities, a first step in understanding collective suicide, this qualitative study was designed. Fifty Inuit were interviewed in two Inuit communities in Nunavut, Canada, and questionnaires asking the same questions were given to 66 high school and college students. The areas of life investigated here were happiness and wellbeing, unhappiness, healing, and community and personal change. Three themes emerged as central to well-being: the family, talking/communication, and traditional Inuit cultural values and practices. The absence of these factors were most closely associated with unhappiness. Narratives about community and personal change were primarily about family, intergenerational segregation, an increasing population, more trouble in romantic relationships among youth, drug use, and poverty. Change over time was viewed primarily as negative. Discontinuity of kinship structure and function appears to be the most harmful effect of the internal colonialism imposed by the Canadian government in the 1950s and 1960s. Directions toward community control and action are encouraging, and are highlighted. Inuit community action toward suicide prevention and community wellness is part of a larger movement of Indigenous self-determination.

Well-being and environmental change in the arctic: a synthesis of selected research from Canada’s International Polar Year program

“…These kinds of generalized assessments provide only a narrow understanding of Indigenous well-being (Prout 2011;Kral et al 2011;Parlee et al 2007). Well-being, like the .…”

A scoping review

“…A study conducted in Sweden found that young Sami experienced a higher prevalence of suicidal expressions and suicide in significant others but not a higher prevalence of suicide attempts compared to young Swedes (Omma, Sandlund, & Jacobsson, 2013). Kral, Idlout, Minore, Dyck, and Kirmayer (2011) found in their study on the meaning and experience of well-being among Inuit in Nunavut (Canada) that respondents experienced suicide as a major social problem. Here, respondents, among these also suicide attempters, identified romantic relationship problems and family problems as the trigger for most youth suicides (Kral et al, 2011).…”

“…Kral, Idlout, Minore, Dyck, and Kirmayer (2011) found in their study on the meaning and experience of well-being among Inuit in Nunavut (Canada) that respondents experienced suicide as a major social problem. Here, respondents, among these also suicide attempters, identified romantic relationship problems and family problems as the trigger for most youth suicides (Kral et al, 2011).…”

“…One of the main findings in the report 'Sharing Hope', a comprehensive report that documented and evaluated best practices in mental wellness-related interventions in circumpolar regions, was the fact that "suicide prevention requires culturally-grounded solutions that are community-based and community-driven" (SDWG, 2015). When looking at the regional differences of suicide rates over time, as done in Greenland, it becomes clear that strategies for prevention need to consider the different temporal patterns, disparities in living conditions and local context (Bjerregaard & Larsen, 2015 Broad community-based approaches for prevention can entail clinicians and frontline workers screening for risk factors in indigenous communities with attention to gender differences MIO, 2017aMIO, , 2017bMIO, , 2017dMota et al, 2012;Redvers et al, 2015;Reigstad & Kvernmo, 2017), enhancing teachers' ability to detect symptoms and problems as well as providing low threshold health services from primary school onwards Chachamovich et al, 2015;MIO, 2017aMIO, , 2017bMIO, , 2017d, and/or fostering parenting skills in young families Chachamovich et al, 2015;Kral et al, 2011;MIO, 2017aMIO, , 2017bMIO, , 2017d. The latter approach has shown to provide promising results such as decreasing rates of maladaptive behaviours and long-term mental health outcomes (Chachamovich et al, 2015).…”

“…Parental skills programs exist in for example Nunavut (Canada) (QHRC, 2012) and is currently also being implemented in Greenland (MANU, 2017). Kral et al (2011) found family life essential to Inuit conceptions of well-being, which makes it important for future interventions to be family centred; see also Reigstad and Kvernmo (2017).…”