TREATMENT CENTRE READY FOR FRESH START

Focus Shifts to Inuit-Friendly Program

KUUJJUAQ -- With an all-new staff and a keen board of directors,
fresh determination and ambitious plans for the future, Kuujjuaq's
treatment centre is ready to start up again in January.

That's when the centre's staff is planning to take the first
treatment cycle the centre has been able to offer in more than a year.

"It's really exciting," said Eva Lapage, who is now the executive
director of Isuarsivik. "I want to know how people feel when they go
through our treatment program."

The six-week drug, alcohol and trauma treatment program will be
all-new and holistic, Lapage said, featuring a strong connection to
the land and Inuit culture. Like Mamisarvik's treatment program in
Ottawa, Isuarsivik will have a structured program, involving lots of
group therapy sessions, one-on-one counseling, good food as well as
elder's visits, exercise and on-the-land activities. Inuktitut will
be the language of treatment.

Lapage said potential clients can expect to experience a program
quite different from any that were previously offered at the centre.

"I was not there," Lapage said. "But from what I hear, the program
was oriented to the First Nations and the South."

The new treatment program has been one year in development. Lapage
and Dave Forest, the president of Isuarsivik's board, said they
didn't want to rush into anything, so that centre's operations would
be more stable.

A little more than a year ago, the centre fired its former executive
director. After closing down to clients in October, Isuarsivik
embarked on a total restructuring, said Forest.

During this time, Nunavimmiut who wanted addictions treatment had to
find other treatment programs in Ottawa or Goose Bay.

This wasn't the first time Isuarsivik had crashed to a halt: in 2000,
Isuarsivik closed temporarily due to a lack of funds and a need to
overhaul its staff and operations.

Since the most recent closing, Isuarsivik has acquired a stable
annual budget of about $800,000 and a slew of new board members,
including the mayor of Kuujjuaq, Larry Watt.

The board's other members include many Kuujjuammiut active in the
fields of education, health and government: Mary Aitchison, Jeannie
May, Shirley White Dupuis, Jacob Patridge, Bob Mesher, Lydia
Annahatak Yates and Mary Joanne Hauki.

Lapage describes the centre's current board as incredibly supportive
and committed to promoting a more healthy and sober lifestyle in Nunavik.

With their support and a new team of sober staff, which are being
recruited now, Lapage and Forest plan to offer several treatment
cycles in 2007. The first cycle open to the public will be in
February. The program will also be open to Inuit living in other regions.

Lapage and Forest are also hopeful that assistance from the
Sanarrutik crime prevention program will allow the treatment centre's
plans to build a new, $8.3 million 22-bed, family-oriented facility
in Kuujjuaq will become reality in the near future. The centre will
then expand its staff from 15 to 50.

Under these plans, Isuarsivik also will acquire a new name:
Salumasarvik, which means "cleansing place" in Inuttitut.