1. Mental Health, Problem Solving and Nunavut’s Criminal Courts
Priscilla Ferrazzi LLB, LLM, PhD
Assistant Professor, University of Alberta, Canada

2. Outline Results: Criminal courts and mental illness
Identification
Rehabilitation
Collaboration
New study: Rehabilitation and Inuit views
New study: Disability and access to justice

3. Results: Criminal courts and mental illness
Communities
Iqaluit (pop. 6,699)
Arviat (pop. 2,318)
Qikiqtarjuaq (pop. 520)

4. Results: Criminal courts and mental illness
71.25 = Hours of interviews
55 = Number of interviews* plus 3 Focus Groups
18 = Justice sector participants, including judges, lawyers and police
14 = Health sector participants, including psychiatrists, nurses, social workers and wellness workers
13 = Members of community organizations, including hamlet officials
14 = Community members, including Inuit Elders
* Two of the interviews involved two participants at once

5. Results: Criminal courts and mental illness
1. Identifying people with mental illness
“We don’t really understand what mental health is, but yet we see symptoms of something all around us.”

6. Results: Criminal courts and mental illness
2. Approaches to treatment and rehabilitation
“If you are going to have an Inuit person who is mentally ill, you are going to have to be able to blend tradition—our traditional healing—and a Westernized healing and hopefully get through to the person that you need both.”