Friday, December 16, 2011

You will be happy to hear [thanks to my early intervention] that Environment Canada has given us back our Friday.
So it looks like maybe we will get some snow Friday and maybe Saturday. But we wont get overly excited as it looks like wind will blow the snow off. Then it is back into the big chill next week.

Should this woman go to jail gaol or be anointed a saint. I am leaning towards the latter.

This blog post puts an interesting question out there. Not that has not been asked before, but it has always puzzled me why such high standards on reporting how government monies are spent are put on aboriginal groups and entities inside aboriginal communities, yet many non aboriginal agencies can run deficits and have monies flitted away and no [government] one really makes such a big deal out of it.

Now I do agree that being accountable is the best course, but the double standard has always troubled me.

Another tragedy has hit this town of many tragedies. A young man decided to end his life Wednesday in the toilet of the high school. He was only 14 or 15, cant think of words to describe how his family and friends must feel.
I do not want to write on these issues, but at the same time not talking and writing about them does more harm that good.

Councilors on the ground are dealing with family [if they request it] and a group of councilors from the school board arrived yesterday to work with the school children.

All well and good but when will all this reactionary process lead to pro action, after all there are lots of kids hurting out there, you can see it everyday just walking around the streets.

I have taken an except from a Facebook post, I hope that person who wrote it does not mind.

there is a very powerful spirit taking over our young people and taking them away from us. Suicide. We desperately need mental health services for our young people because right now they have nothing. It takes months to get to see a counsellor in Goose Bay. I think it should be mandatory for teachers in our communities to have suicide intervention training, they are the people who see the kids everyday and should realize 

I post it just to give people a sense of what youth are thinking and saying in private.  That post has 24 likes at the moment. There are many many more people speaking and witting on social media about this very serious issue, yet the powers that be continue their silence.


For some perspective: There are counseling services available [though underfunded and staffed] on the ground. There is also an urgent need for the Nunatsiavut Government to start being pro active and leading their people in finding ways of dealing with all the hurt going back generations. You cant live in denial for much longer, action must be taken now.

4 comments:

Paradise Driver said...

Is there a local or regional or national hotline that despondent people can call? Many suicides are prevented if the person just can have someone to talk to. Just a suggestion.

Old Brooktrout said...

This is a very sad story. On the one hand you have the tireless efforts of the local suicide response team, but there appears to be little effort structurally to support them. I thought there was a big mental health and suicide prevention program in the works for years...where does that stand? OBT

Brian said...

Nice to hear from you PD. Yes there are fairly recently introduced regional and national hotlines for suicide, abusive, elder issues and the like.
There was a local crises line but it is defunct. There are local folk available as OBT points out.
Thing is to my mind many of the target group are either not comfortable with what is availed or have no skill sets in dealing with people over a phone line. This may be for many reasons not the least is the cultural divide, and a generational disconnect with modern society.
I think a new approach of getting some people on the ground with a background in dealing with youth on the street. Many youth do not like attending institutional based sessions, plus you need to remove any hint of ‘authority figures’ being involved.
They need to relate to people who they are comfortable with.

There is a number of local young folk talking about maybe getting involved; it just needs one or two to take the bull by the horn. Then as OBT pints out the structural support is needed but not there.

As to the ‘big mental health’ team.

http://www.labradormappingtheway.ca/home/

It is up and running but is spread around between communities and differing agencies it seems. This all makes for very confusing delivery IMO. This all come about due funding from different levels of government I am told.

Anonymous said...

hi just registered ,, tina