Life On The Reserves: Morale And Mental Health

The Canadian Aboriginal community consists of a strong support system founded on tradition, heritage, and spirituality. However, the history of Natives in Canada is polluted with marginalization, abandonment, and powerlessness. It has been argued that this history is the foundation for the addiction in Canadian indigenous communities, where the rates of substance abuse remain extremely high. Prior to the colonization of North American Natives, addictive substances such as tobacco, and alcohol were available. However, they were used moderately and rarely associated with

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

Aboriginal people represent less than 3% of the total population in BC. Yet, they account for more than 9% of all suicides in BC (Chandler). The numbers of suicides amongst aboriginal youth are even more alarming – nearly one-fourth of all youth suicides in BC are committed by aboriginals and more than half of all aboriginal suicides are committed by youth (Chandler). The fact that indigenous communities in Canada have the highest rate of suicide of any culturally identifiable group in the world implies that these alarming statistics may not solely be a result of aboriginal communities belonging to a minority cultural group. I will attempt to build a speculative hypothesis behind the significantly high suicide rates amongst aboriginal

Alcohol abuse among Aboriginal youth is a prevalent issue in Canada. This widespread drug abuse stems from social, cultural, and biological factors. As there are many negative impacts that come with alcohol abuse, treatment options are necessary. When treating Aboriginal youth for alcohol abuse, it is necessary for practitioners to take cultural context into consideration to ensure sensitivity and success. It is important to understand alcohol abuse and why Aboriginal youth are an especially high risk demographic. This helps to identify effective ways to diminish alcohol abuse in the Aboriginal youth population through behavioural therapy, drug therapy, and therapeutic recreation programs.

But, where the government is truly at fault is in not supporting the numerous problems within these Aboriginal reserves that have been building for decades and as a result, created the current turmoil dealing with missing and murdered Aboriginal women. The current crisis of the murdered and missing Aboriginal women of Canada is a symptom of larger issues within Native reserves that have gradually over time become more pronounced and consequently inhibited the growth of women in these communities; these issues being, the widespread third world living conditions, early childhood sexual abuse that results in later domestic violence and the cycle of substance abuse.

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

In North American society, the idea of mental health and suicide is presented quite frequently. Whether it is someone directly associated with oneself (friend, family member, co-worker, etc.) or the news recapping another life lost to suicide, it is an ongoing battle and it affects everyone. In 2010, there was 3,951 reported lives lost to suicide in Canada (“Suicides and suicide rates”, 2014). Navaeelan (2012) points out that suicide is a major cause of preventable death, and it is the second leading cause of death among youth. Within the youth population in Canada, Aboriginal youth are most at risk for attempting suicide, with rates 5-7% higher than those of non-Aboriginal heritage (Health Canada, 2013). The ongoing battle against

The difference in suicide rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians exists because of the stereotypical treatment towards aboriginals. Since the early ages of the British settlements Aboriginals have been enslaved and treated as the lower class. This has changed as there is no more slavery however the non-indigenous attitudes towards the indigenous is still bad and this can lead to depression and then suicide

Next, we must analyze the conditions that exist on reserves and how they impact the Indigenous populations that inhabit them. In the year of 2016, 19.4% of Indigenous Peoples reported living on reserves that needed major repairs (Statistics Canada, 2016.) Many

When the Canadian government set up residential schools in the 1870’s, they took away a major component of the Aboriginal people’s culture: family. The aims of these schools were to assimilate Aboriginal children and prepare them for living in a white society. Instead, they caused tremendous psychological abuse to not only the children being forced to leave their homes, but also to their guardians. After this traumatic event, many aboriginal people resorted to substance abuse in order to cope with their experience in these schools. One study reported “82 percent of individuals were involved in substance abuse behaviors after attending residential schools.” (Chansonneuve, 2007, p.22). I believe that there is a negative correlation between substance abuse and crime rates, as proven by various studies. A study conducted in 2005 showed that “alcohol or substance abuse problems [were] significantly associated with serious violent acts in the community.” (Swartz et al.,1998, pp.226-231). Many Indigenous detainees, who attributed their crime to alcohol, have also acknowledged this negative

Morale is the spine in your back, the lift to your chin, the song on your lips, the grit in your craw. Morale is the spirit that makes you say defiantly "Is that so?" when you are told you aren't man or woman enough to do something – and makes you do it! Morale gives you the heart to smile when the going is toughest; it gives you the spunk to wisecrack when the danger is greatest (Hunt 250). In the absence of a credible positive ideology, motivation was always a problem; in return, this led to fluctuations in morale. Consequently, raising and sustaining morale became all important, and morale itself developed into one of the unique obsessions of the Allies during the Second World War (Fussell

A research study by Phillip Quartana, a research psychologist at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring, Maryland. After war in Afghanistan started in 2001, and the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Both conflicts have had a an actual impact on soldiers' mental health. According to several studies, one in four active infantry soldiers met the standard criteria for PTSD or major depression, according to background research study. The study, published online July 17 in the American Journal of Public Health, used data from surveys of active duty Military personnel conducted between 2002 and 2011. As a result, a majority of soldiers who used mental health services in 2011 were approximately about 15 percent, the study found. Similarly,

Indigenous individuals have been exposed to numerous traumas for generations. The predominant ones are colonization and residential schools (Monchalin, 2016). The impacts of these catastrophic traumas are immense, and have done a tremendous amount of damage that we now call intergenerational trauma. These impacts have a direct correlation to over-representation of Aboriginal people in the Canadian Criminal Justice System. Moreover, “Commonly identified responses include depression, mental illness, post traumatic stress disorders, addictions to alcohol and drugs, powerlessness, sexual

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.

Mental status has long known to be one of the leading causes of suicide. The main issue to look at from a sociological view is just how those mental status can be caused by society. Working long hours, taking little time off, and extended periods of time thinking only about