The community of Baker Lake in Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut, where a community-based counselling service has been running for 30 years.
Photo Credit: (Eilís Quinn/Eye on the Arctic)

The importance of community-based mental health programs in the Arctic

Eye on the Arctic brings you stories and newsmakers from across the North  

This week on Eye on the Arctic, we’re dipping into our video vault for a look at mental health services in the North. 

For many northerners in Canada’s remote Arctic communities, the obstacles to receiving mental health services are multiplied by their isolation and lack of culturally relevant counselling.

But people in many of these communities are working to change this.

To find out how, Eye on the Arctic travelled to Canada’s eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut to prepare this 2017 documentary report on the Mianiqsijit project, a program that’s been offering counselling services to the community for almost 30 years.

There, we spoke to everyone from project workers to community members about the challenges many northerners face when seeking counselling or mental health support and how community-based programs can help.

Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca

Related stories from around the North:

Canada: Mental Health in Canada’s North: ‘We need to recognize resilience too’, Eye on the Arctic

Finland:  OECD ‘concerned’ over high suicide rates in Finland, YLE News

Russia:  Why high suicide rates in Arctic Russia?, Blog by Deutsche Welle’s Iceblogger

Sweden: Gender stereotypes behind high suicide rate, Radio Sweden

United States:  Confronting suicide in Alaska, Alaska Dispatch News

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