ADDICTED WOMEN OFFERED HELP IN CAMBRIDGE BAY

Live-in Program Provides Alternative to Treatment Outside Territory

Cambridge Bay counsellors are reaching out to Nunavut women addicted to
drugs or booze, in an effort to provide help that is unavailable in the
rest of the territory.

The community is welcoming applications from any women who want to join
other troubled Nunavummiut in the only live-in treatment program in the
territory.

The program offers four weeks of intensive counselling for free to women
who show they are willing and able to face their addictions.

Twelve women will stay together in a residence in Cambridge Bay, beside the
wellness centre, beginning mid-February.

Alice Isnor, the hamlet's community wellness director, opened the program
to applicants across Nunavut because they have nowhere else to go in the
territory.

"We only have 12 spaces," Isnor warned. "But if we could help somebody in
some way, we'd be happy to hear from them."

Until now, women couldn't get residential treatment in the Kitikmeot
region, or anywhere else in Nunavut. They had to go south to northern
Quebec, Ontario, or the Northwest Territories.

The program only accepts women because they were the ones who were really
pushing for extra help, Isnor said.

Women also seem more willing than men to deal with their addictions, she added.

However, Cambridge Bay men can still get counselling through other local
community wellness activities, such as anger management.

In the live-in program, women from around the territory will meet for group
counselling with Isnor and an addiction expert from northern Alberta.

They will also enjoy a month of recreational activity like sewing, or
simply chatting with elders, to keep them occupied with "things more
constructive than they might otherwise be doing," Isnor said.

"It could be any number of things," Isnor said of program activities.
"Recreation doesn't need to mean you're doing basketball or something like
that."

Isnor expects participants will be people who are drinking or doing drugs
to the point that it's interfering with their family or working life. For
example, they're spending too much on their addictions, and can't buy
enough for their family to eat.

Or, they're partying so much that they don't show up for work.

Often, these people feel alone in their addiction and don't seek help,
Isnor said.

However, the live-in program provides a safe haven for addicts who are too
shy or ashamed to deal with the addiction on their own.

"They're able to talk about things in a more free way," Isnor said. "There
are people with them who have been there too, in a similar but different
place."

Cambridge Bay put together the live-in program after receiving increased
requests from women in their one-week activities, such as workshops on how
to build self-esteem.

That prompted Isnor to expand the hamlet's wellness program, which started
more than a year ago. Counsellors were coming up periodically from the
South, and a residential building sat vacant beside the wellness centre.

"We had the people, just not the money," she said.

At Isnor's request, the territorial department of health and social
services provided about $50,000 in funding, which includes airfare for
those from outside Cambridge Bay.

Isnor said she hopes to receive more applications from around the
territory, although she's already received more than 12 applications for
the program.

Anyone interested in applying should call Isnor at (867) 983-2133, before
Jan. 29.