Montana Suicide Case Study

Suicide is prevalent amongst Native American youth because of all the problems they may face. They face problems in many different ways and they think their only way out is to commit suicide. Based on the text, it states, “But lack of resources to treat mental health problems, substance abuse and family turmoil have an effect too, Wagner said. "There is this feeling of being trapped, and having nowhere to go"”(Newsela). This shows that the Native Americans have some problems that they think they can’t overcome. The reservations don’t have as many organizations to help and prevent suicide. Some Native Americans who go to school say that the teachers are being hard on them, but the teachers don’t know what is happening at home. They face problems at home with their family.

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

A Review of Temporal trends and geographic patterns of teen suicide in Alaska, 1979-1993. Bradford D Gessner. Suicide & Life - Threatening Behavior. New York: Fall 1997. Vol. 27, Iss. 3; pg. 264, 10 pgs

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

Suicide can be defined as the intentional taking of one’s life. This is when the person has gone beyond help and is not able to even listen to reason. When the person in question has started having suicidal thoughts, they will not cease experimental methods until something they wish be done is accomplished.

According to the New York Times, “at least 103 attempts by people ages 12 to 24 occurred from December to March [in Pine Ridge]…emergency medical workers…say they have been called to the scenes of suicide attempts, sometimes several times a day.” Facing this obvious crisis on the Reservation, any sanguine citizen would be of the belief that the government has redoubled its efforts to assist the community of Pine Ridge in stopping the death of Oglala Lakota children. But, as those who are more acquainted with the status quo on American Indian reservations would expect, the mental health system present on the Reservation remains tragically

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

Native Americans have a staggering forty percent rate from suicidal incidents in the ages fifteen through twenty-four. For young adults, it occurs between eighteen and twenty-four. Surprisingly, Native Americans have the highest rate of suicide than the general population, ethnicities, and races. In the year 2014, a report found that suicide happened to be the second leading cause of death, other than unintentional injuries. It is believed that in many occasions, Native Americans do not like to speak about suicide. In the case it was brought up, they will eventually kill themselves. They Native American culture struggles to receive mental-health funding to save anyone they can. Health issues like Diabetes and depression are very common.

In the article written in the (Douglas County 2010) "In Douglas County between 2003-2007: The homicide rate in the black population was 6.7 per 100,000 population, slightly higher than the white population rate of 5.9.  The age group with the highest homicide rate was 30-39 year olds with a rate of 8.9 per 100,000 population. The suicide rate in Douglas County from 2003-2007 was much higher in whites with a rate of 12.9 per 100,000 compared to a rate of 4.0 for blacks." One organizational barrier is having enough program facilities and enough training of staff for the ones which we have in place. They must be able to detect potential victims and be able to recognized early those who are at risk. One way the community may decrease its suicide and murder rate according to our text (Burkholder & Nash, 2013, p.6.1) " Improving local economies and living conditions in low-income areas may also reduce the overall number of

Suicides in Montana continues to take the lead amongst the greatest in the nation; unless there is more awareness and prevention it will continue to take the lives of Montanans’. This drastic self inflicted pain does not have to be the last option. Every day is the beginning of a new day; a new page in the book of life. Darkness must not prevail! It must stop taking the lives of friends and family; in order to start saving the lives of Montanans’.

They have had their land stolen from them. They have been victimized again and again by colonists. Today, they face deep systemic racism. Native Americans face unprecedented amounts of adversity that is resulting in a suicide epidemic. In this review, I present solid information on the reasons that a suicide epidemic is affecting the Native American community. Suicide and mental health are not often subjects that make headlines. However, Native Americans have been facing a silent mental health crisis for decades. The rate of suicide in Native American communities is disturbingly high compared to other races. Stigma, abuse, mental illness, and a lack of federal assistance are all factors that contribute to the alarming statistics. I will be looking at the various reasons for why the suicide rates are so high in these groups and what can be or has been done to combat this problem.

The Zuni American Indian reservation was chosen as one of the pilot communities in testing intervention methods because of the number of adolescent suicides encountered by the Zuni Tribe in New Mexico. Although the rates of suicide have always been significantly higher in American Indians in comparison to the general public, the numbers of suicides in the Zuni community increased rather drastically between the years of 1980 and 1987 when 13 adolescents between the ages of 14 and 18 years old had successfully completed suicide. Obviously, this number was this extremely upsetting to the community for many reasons, including grief in the loss of their fellow tribe members and because suicide is strictly forbidden in the Zuni culture like many other American Indian populations (LaFromboise, & Lewis, 2008).

Within this draft proposal, it is argued that the issue of the unprecedented rise in teenage suicide on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation demands immediate action from the tribal government to help improve life on the reservation and work towards saving the young people of the Oglala Sioux Tribe (and potentially the youth amongst other tribes across the United States). Hopefully with this draft proposal, officials in charge of the Oglala Sioux Tribe can use these recommendations to work towards fixing the many issues on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that has contributed to the unprecedented rise of teenage suicide. First and foremost, the economic system within the reservation needs immediate reformation and further development to combat

In Arizona, the suicide rate is 16.5 per 100,000 people which makes Arizona the top 8th state with the highest suicide rate. Arizona has a population of 6.83 million people and is also the top 8th state with the highest suicide rate, according to cbsnews. As alarming as it sounds “Suicide is the 8th leading cause of death in the United States”(randomhistory.com) After looking at these statistics, suicide is a big issue in Arizona, therefore critical action should be taken. People need to learn how to identify the signs of someone who is thinking about or has decided on committing suicide. As well as get educated on what causes the victims to go through with the act. There