Citation

Eggertson L. CMAJ 2016; 188(7): E116.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Canadian Medical Association)

DOI

10.1503/cmaj.109-5250

PMID

27001738

Abstract

The new document is based on the territory's suicide-prevention strategy and a three-year implementation plan, which was developed and released in 2011 by the Government of Nunavut, the RCMP, the Embrace Life Council and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. (NTI), which administers Inuit responsibilities under the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. The new strategy also incorporates responses to the recommendations from a coroner's inquest last fall into the territory's disproportionately high suicide rate.

Since the territory was established in 1999, 492 people — all but a handful were Inuit — have completed suicide. In 2015, there were 32 suicides, down from the record 45 in 2013. The territory's population is 37 000, about 85% of whom are Inuit. From 1999 until 2014, Nunavummiut took their lives at a rate of 111.4 per 100 000 population — nearly 10 times the rate of other Canadians (11.4 per 100 000), according to the most recent Statistics Canada data (2000–2011).

A key element of the new strategy is a stakeholders' summit to develop a longer-term plan to support community organizations. It is to be held in May.

Language: en