NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Gwich'in Settlement Area

Tags: social sciences, youth, Inuit, cannabis, parents

Objective(s): To determine the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of Inuit youth and new or expecting parents in Inuvialuit Settlement Region toward cannabis use.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.5239. The objectives of this project are to dtermine the knowledge, attitudes and behaviours (KAB) of Inuit youth and new or expecting parents in Inuvialuit Settlement Region toward cannabis use. The team also plan to share cannabis harm reduction tools and information and assess their effectiveness and determine persisting gaps in cannabis related information or services. Nationally available online survey open to Inuit youth or parents on KAB toward cannabis use. This will target all regions of Inuit Nunangat and Inuit in urban cities. Hold two focus groups in one community in each region of Inuit Nunangat and select urban centres. One focus group with youth and one focus group with new or expecting parents. For this license and this region the research team hope to hold engagements in Yellowknife and Inuvik, NWT. The team would like to share an Inuit specific cannabis harm reduction toolkit with participants during engagements to increase knowledge of how to reduce possible harms of cannabis use. The team also plan to engage with participants on if their knowledge about cannabis and reducing harms increased, and what is still missing from cannabis related information and services. The team will compile information from all engagements with Inuit across Canada to get a picture of Inuit perceptions toward cannabis use in their communities and determine the impact of existing cannabis harm reduction information and toolkits. The Director of Health and Wellness at the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation (IRC) is aware and supportive of the project. The research team plan to be in continual contact with the team at the IRC Wellness Division. They are aware and supportive of the plans and will likely assist in planning and promoting the engagements. The team are also in contact with the Director of Yellowknifemiut Inuit Kattujiqatigiit who will be fully aware of all travel and engagement plans and likely assist in promoting and identifying potential participants. The team will make the anonymized data available to both the IRC Health and Wellness department and Yellowknifemiut Inuit Kattujiqatigiit. Pauktuutit often uses community Facebook groups to promote engagements in communities which the team will likely post to promote the engagement in Inuvik. The team are open to adapting the communication plan as deemed fit by research and license and ethics boards. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from May 25, 2022 to December 31, 2022