8 Informed Approach to Disclosures of Abuse and Healing
8 Informed Approach to Disclosures of Abuse and Healing
Daniel A. Afram and Amber Miners
Consistent with other remote Indigenous communities, social work in Nunavut has many unique challenges and limitations. The current chapter aims to explore and understand approaches to these challenges, through the introduction of a case study highlighting common realities across Nunavut. We will further describe several practice approaches and competencies in navigating the case study. As social workers, we must understand the historical and social complexities of Inuit populations to consider any approach or intervention in the provision of service. It is our hope that the introduction of Inuit history and its context will enrich your approach to care within our region. We introduce and explain the Child Advocacy Centre (CAC) model, which works within the Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) principles. We will also explain the Umingmak CAC and how its introduction has changed the response to childhood trauma within our jurisdiction, and allowed for more inter-departmental communication and collaboration. This change has ultimately shifted the response to care of our most vulnerable children and adolescents in our community.
This chapter will review Inuit history, values, community response to supporting children and adolescents with disclosures, as well as challenges, barriers and interventions. Although the content may seem extensive, we recognize that it may still not feel complete in capturing the complexity of social work in Nunavut. As a future social worker, you need to immerse yourself in the content while maintaining a critical lens of the larger impact of colonialism on service provision. The chapter might also illicit certain reactions based on your own social location and your beliefs about how service delivery should look or be implemented. If you find yourself challenged at certain moments, manage the discomfort as you are able and then return to the chapter when you are ready.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will have the opportunity to:
- Understand the historical context of Inuit in the Arctic
- To be introduced to Inuit societal values
- To explore best practices in community response to care
- To describe Child Advocacy Centres, and the first Child Advocacy Centre in Nunavut
- To recognize the importance of working in multidisciplinary teams
- To explore ethical considerations, barriers and challenges in the context of providing social work in Northern Canada
Inuit history from pre-colonialism to current realities will be reviewed. We acknowledge that we are not Inuit and do not represent Inuit. We write about Inuit culture and heritage only to assist in the description of unique social work practice in our location. We encourage you to look to Inuit organizations and individuals for further information on this subject. Our intention is to provide some foundational understanding relating to themes of distrust in service provis