The first monthly session that was held in June 2021 and featured presentations by Alison Crawford and Christina Viskum Lytken Larsen. Our objective was to get to know new Arctic Youth Wellbeing Network Members and learn about Project CREATeS and the Arctic Council. The work Project CREATeS and the Arctic Council are doing is to create an opportunity and methods for community engagement and knowledge translation to support the suicide prevention and mental wellness efforts of the Arctic States.
The Arctic Youth Wellbeing Network aims to sustain the circumpolar network that has been established through the Arctic Council, so that we can continue to collaborate and share best practices in mental wellbeing and broaden the circumpolar network to include more community members and youth. Christina Viskum Lytken Larsen showed some short films made by the Arctic youth that participated in Project CREATeS, with content on their local communities struggles, healing, culture, etc. Visit www.projectcreates.com/
Allison Crawford (she/her) is a psychiatrist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, and Adjunct Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and Department of English. At the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, she is the Director of the Northern Psychiatric Outreach Program and Telepsychiatry, and co-Chair of ECHO Ontario Ontario Mental Health.
Allison has worked as a psychiatrist in Nunavut for over 10 years, and coordinates psychiatric services for the Government of Nunavut. She has consulted to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, with the Mental Health Commission of Canada, to create a Canadian National Inuit Suicide Prevention Strategy; and with the Inuit Circumpolar Council and the Arctic Council on circumpolar wellness and suicide prevention initiatives.
Allison has a PhD in English literature, and brings arts-informed approaches to community engagement, public health, research and education. She is Editor-in-Chief of Ars Medica, and co-curator of The Body Electric.
