Factors That May Be Responsible For Aboriginal Suicide

The social issue that I would like to address as a social worker is the epidemic of indigenous youth suicide in Canada. On the macro level, I believe this issue can be understood through two fundamental components: the residual effects of colonization trauma passed through generations and the effects of current colonial-based, neo-liberal institutional actions on indigenous youth.

Suicide attempts are highest among American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) females, followed by AI/AN males, and are lowest among African American and White adolescent males. Due to shame and the value placed on not looking weak in the African American community, some youth use less taboo ways of ending their lives. Wolfgang (1959) stated that, “victim-precipitated suicide is disproportionately represented among African American males.” For example, “In studies of officer-involved shootings, there appears to be evidence of suicidal intent in between 10% and 46% of cases” (Klinger, 2001). Therefore, due to cultural beliefs within the African American community, sometimes African Americans use victim-precipitated suicide as a more conventional way of ending their lives. The American Indian/Alaska Native group has also been

In addition, the program offered healing to the community still healing from the legacy of colonialism. If the federal government kept funding the suicide prevention program there would not have been a spike in suicide rates in the community. Furthermore, a psychologist at the University of Victoria, Christopher Lalonde, believes the key to stopping suicides is rooted in the communities (McCue, 2016). From two decades of researching, he found that the communities that are the least “culturally healthy” have a higher rate of youth suicide (McCue, 2016). Also, the mental wellness of aboriginal youths is not only about being mentally healthy but also having a balance between Aboriginal youths’ families, communities, and the environment (Khan, 2008). Therefore, it will be better that Aboriginal suicide prevention programs are created by Aboriginal communities to target the prevalence issues in their communities with some assistance from the government to set it up and fund

Since December of 2015, there has been an alarming rate of suicides to occur in Manitoba, Canada on the Cross Lake First Nation Indian Reserve. Since then six students have committed suicide while ten others have attempted it. Most of the people who have attempted suicide are ninth and tenth graders of that school and are currently on a suicide prevention list. The chief of the small community of only six thousand eight hundred individuals is calling a state of emergency. Shirley Robinson who is the chief told CNN, “There's so much hurt, there's so much pain. You can feel it in every direction of our nation. Only last year there was one suicide while in some of the recent past years there had been no suicides. The community said it is difficult

This theory predicts that there are two components to suicide. First off, perception of burdening others and feeling socially alienated combine to result in the desire to die. However, an individual will not act on this desire unless he/she has developed a capability to do so. Capability to commit suicide is developed through habituation from overexposure which perhaps desensitizes the individual to experiences that are painful. This may be vital in allowing the individual to overcome innate instincts for survival and prepare him/her to act on the desire to die. Aboriginal people in Canada have undergone tremendous acculturation and marginalization (failing to acquire and value Aboriginal values and identity, while also failing to identify with the cultural values of the larger society) which may be responsible in making them perceive themselves as a burden to others and feel socially alienated. Such feelings, based on the interpersonal-psychological theory, might instil the desire to die. Habituation and as a result, desensitization to the fear and pain associated with a suicidal experience, could be occurring due to high rates of suicide in one’s community. Thus, the interpersonal-psychological theory provides some insight into aboriginal suicide. However, the picture is incomplete as this explanation could be applied to suicide amongst patients

The inability to make and prolong relationships leads to a sense of isolation, and contributes to poor mental health and depression. Hospitalisation rates for self-harm are representative of mental illness, depression and stress – and in 2006, Indigenous Australians were 3 times more likely to be hospitalized for severe self-harm than other Australians. In 2011, 80% of suicides of the ages 19 to 24 were

Among NA/AN adults, this rate is 75% higher than that of the general population. Suicide is not isolated to NA/AN adults – among NA/AN youth, the rates of death due to suicide are double the general population, and NA/AN teens experience the highest rate of suicide of any population group in America. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among NA/ANs aged 15 to 24. On a standardized survey, fifteen percent of students in schools located on Native American reservations in 2010 reported having attempted suicide in the prior year. Among youth, the most common reasons for attempting suicide were feelings of hopelessness or despair, bleak future prospects, domestic trouble, and bullying. There is concern among some mental health professionals that suicide is having a contagion-like effect in some communities and schools – feeling neglected, youth can be attracted to the displays of mourning that follow a death; and once they hear about the method of suicide, they imitate it. Sadly, in some communities, suicide attempts have become commonplace and a normal part of daily

One reason suicide rates may be going up is because a side effect warning needed to be placed on antipsychotic drug stating that the drug may increase to likelihood of people under 26 on the drug to commit suicide. So doctors don’t want to take the risk and decide not to prescribe the drug to patient that need it. Prevention for Native nations is harder because in their culture how people pass and mental disease are not as widely discussed as it is in most American communities. Depression is talked about with children in many health programs in school. This doesn’t happen in the Native nations as much that they are not able to see the sign of someone who is thinking about suicide. Not, all suicides are preventable, but some are if people around

This has resulted in high rates of alcoholism and substance abuse among First Nations people. Statistics have also shown that aboriginal people in Canada have higher mortality rates, higher rates of disease, higher rates of accidental deaths and much higher rates of suicide than the rest of the Canadian population. In Canada, suicide and self-inflicted injury is the number one cause of death among natives aged 10 to 44. Additionally, native women attempt suicide eight times more often than other Canadian women, and native men attempt suicide five times more often than other Canadian

Seeing that youth suicide rates amongst Aboriginal youth are five to seven times higher than non-Aboriginal youth, and Inuit youth are among the highest in the world, at 11 times the national average, there are several contributing attributes that should be further researched. (Health Canada, 2013) One of the contributing factors that are discussed in many Aboriginal courses is that of identity. Aboriginal youth who face high levels of intergenerational trauma due to the RS system often find themselves distanced from Aboriginal culture, without their mother tongue, and western culture. This alongside the negative portrayals of Indigenous peoples within media many times go much deeper to factors beyond an individual 's control and end up as a common root cause of suicide. One way for the federal government can combat this particular factor is through the emplacement of acknowledgment initiatives. Trying to reduce negative stigmas and stereotypes as well, to educate, can help promote healthy self-esteem and confidence levels within Aboriginal youth and result in the prevention of high suicide levels amongst Aboriginal youth. (CITE)

This situation relates to anthropology as La Loche has a high rate of youth suicide, and they are unable to access many government services (ie. health care). La Loche is a tiny, close-knit community mostly consisting of Dene aboriginals. The community is isolated in the northern areas of Saskatchewan where jobs and other opportunities are extremely scarce. An anthropologist will look at how the social and physical environments in La Loche influences how the perpetrator lives, thinks, communicates, and interacts with others in the community. A possible conclusion could be that the remoteness of La Loche and the historically prevalent depression rates amongst the Dene culture provoked the actions of the perpetrator. Thus, the anthropology questions were created with the objective to explore the link between the secluded Aboriginal community and the violent actions of the perpetrator.

Author Graham is answering the question of the Native American Youth suicide epidemic in the country. It has been showed that Native American Youth suicide is double compared to non- Native’s ( Grossman, Milligan, and Deyo, 1991). And how practitioners can help them cope with using the Reason For living Questionaire ( RFL, Lineham, Goldstein, Nielsen and Chiles, 1983) and the Adolescent form it Reason for Living Inventory for Adolescents ( RFL-A, Osman, Downs, Kopper, Barrios, Besett, Lineham, Baker, and Osman, 1998). With the rational worldwide view of connections between four major attributors, the spirit, the context, the mind, and the body. How practitioners can assist Native American Youth in overcoming their suicidal ideologies with

While discovering theories and research by sociologist Emile Durkheim, I was able to see a clear connection to how these theories could be applied to the amount of suicides to those of first nation decent. Considering citizens from first nations groups have been estimated to be eleven times more likely to commit suicide, there are underlying factors of why this may be. Durkheim’s theory states that suicide is a sociological issue and as we have seen there are many ways society could affect ones emotional state.

Emile Durkheim was considered one of the greats of the sociology world. His use of scientific methodology to identify social factors which contributed to suicide has produced a foundational model for empirically based social research still relevant in sociology today. The purpose of this essay is to examine Durkheim’s study of the social causes of suicide, specifically how his theory of social integration and regulation contributed in interpreting these differences in suicide rates. This essay will argue that although heavily criticised Durkheim’s findings of the social factors which contributed to suicide are still relevant in Australia today more than a century later. In order to support this claim, firstly an overview of Durkheim’s social theory will be provided, specifically of his social causes of suicide. In addition it will then focus on how Durkheim interpreted these differences in suicide rates between various groups using his theory of social integration and discuss the two types of suicide Durkheim identified in this area. We will then discuss social regulation and its two forms of suicide. Criticism of his theory will then be discussed, before providing relevant statistics from Australia in regards to suicide rates of teen and indigenous communities and examine these figures to explain these variances in light of Durkheim’s social theory’s, to support the fact that Durkheim’s theory’s are still relevant in Australia today. Emile Durkheim was born in 1858 in a

Indigenous children and youth in Canada have some of the highest suicide rates in the world. Historically, suicide was a very rare occurrence amongst Indigenous people (Kirmayer, 2007). It was only after contact with early European settlers and the subsequent effects of colonialism that suicide became prevalent. In the 2006 Census, a total of 1,172,790 people in Canada identified themselves as Indigenous people. A National Household Survey in 2011 showed that 1,400,685 people in Canada identified themselves as Indigenous persons. This represents 4.3% of the national population. The 2011 statistics show an Indigenous population increase of 20.1% between 2006 and 2011, compared with 5.2% for the non-Indigenous population (Statistics Canada, 2013). Suicide and self-inflicted injuries are the leading causes of death for Indigenous children and youth. Approximately 55% of all Indigenous people are under 25 years of age. The suicide rate for Indigenous male youth (age 15-24) is 126 per 100,000 compared to 24 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous male youth. For Indigenous female youth, the suicide rate is 35 per 100,000 compared to 5 per 100,000 for non-Indigenous females (Health Canada, 2010). Suicide rates