Montana Native Youth Suicide Reduction Strategic Plan

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

From experts on this issue, to the civilians in the public, it is expressed deeply that suicide should not be hidden from any person, including children. It is said that, ¨Each day in our nation there are an average of over 5,400 attempts by young people grades 7-12,¨ (The Parent Resource Program). The thought of a lovely girl named AnnMarie Blaha may come into mind, who took her life in 2013, and was a fifth grader at Meadow Ridge. Nothing can compare to the tragedy of why AnnMarie decided to commit suicide, and the sadness that overwhelmed the school districts was unbearable. From learning about AnnMarie’s story, it can show that like most parents of children who commit suicide, AnnMarie’s parents who had no idea of their daughter’s unknown situation. I confronted my parents, asking them certain questions dealing with this difficult topic. The first question I asked was, “Do you know where to go if you believe your child is thinking of suicide?” Unfortunately, neither one of my parents were able to answer question, because like parents of suicidal children, the thought has never crossed their minds. Since AnnMarie’s death, the importance of educating children and teens of suicide has grown tremendously, and a Prevention Law called, ¨AnnMaries Law,¨ was signed by Governor Bruce Rauner to require ¨the Illinois State Board Education and local school boards to create policies ensuring that students receive age-appropriate lessons youth suicide and prevention¨ (Chicago Tribune). Multiple websites describe the traumatizing death of AnnMarie, but one in particular called, ¨AnnMarie’s Foundation, A Life to Remember,¨ provides resources, hotlines, facts, and notifies the community of warning signals that may be given off by any person. The raise in education is highly needed in all communities. In

The assessment holistic approach to understanding what has occurred and currently occurring in the clients life as well as understanding what is considered a priority of treatment for them and their guardian. The assessment begins with the presenting issues asking what brought the client in. The section also covers when the problem started, how long it has been going on, what is the level of intensity of the problems, and how frequently do they occur. In the family and social history section examples of questions asked are current household member, how does the client get along with others, client's strengths, and who do they go to when they need help. The next section is the abuse and sexual risk behavior where the client is asked if they feel safe inside and or outside there home and if they have or know of anyone that has been abused or neglected. Developmental history is then taken, which includes history of pregnancy, any disorder or disabilities the client has been diagnosed with, and delays in any motor

Census, the NA/AN population is young (30% are in their teens) and projected to grow by 6 million between now and the year 2060 (U.S. Census, 2010).4 For a young population that is projected to grow, the need to focus on their poor mental health outcomes is evident. Close to 20% of NA/AN children reported substance abuse or dependence within the last six months in one standardized survey.5 NA/AN children are more likely to be victims of a violent crime, to be hit or killed by an automobile or to drown than either their African American or white peers.6 The fact that most NA/AN children survive these events, however, carries the high possibility that they carry the memory and experience of a highly traumatic event into their lives, which could impact their subsequent behaviors.6 One of the most unfortunate statistics that has been receiving much attention recently for its severity in the NA/AN community is deaths due to suicide. For 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.7 On a standardized survey, fifteen percent of students in schools located on Native American reservations in 2009 reported having attempted suicide in the prior

Death by acute actions can lessen in Montana if there is more awareness and prevention. With the help of communities coming together suicide education can be expanded to not only across Montana, but across the nation. Positive advertisements about depression and

Healthy People 2020 is a government site that identifies health concerns based on statistics observed and collected over a ten-year period. Mental Health and Mental Disorders is one of the many health concerns or topics listed on their website and has been further subcategorized into objectives and goals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], 2015). The first objective listed under this topic states “reduce the suicide rate” (HHS, 2015). The goal of this objective is to “reduce the suicide rate by ten percent” (HHS, 2015). Suicide is prevalent among varying age groups, ethnicities, and genders (HHS, 2012). It is an increasing problem prompting Healthy People 2020 to label it as a Leading Health Indicator or an extremely important issue (HHS, 2015). To meet their goal, Healthy People 2020 partnered with the U. S. Surgeon General and the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention (NAASP) to create a plan that can be utilized throughout the nation. Their plan focuses on removing the stigma associated with mental health and mental health disorders while simultaneously building supportive communities with increased access to care, creating a standardized model promoting the collaboration of health care professionals in order to increase identification and data collection of high-risk patients and provide continuity of care, and ensuring the education and the adequacy of patient support systems.

Another prominent grant was the Suicide Prevention Resource Center. This grant centers around the goal of reducing suicides and suicidal tendencies through increasing training and resources for states, tribes and

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).

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

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

Because I work in an hospital that cares for populations at great risk for substance abuse and untreated mental issues and disorders, I get to see patients that have, or at some time will try to commit suicide, I would like to take this opportunity to learn how to properly assess the community, to help those in need, and to educate their families and friends to look for, and recognize signs that can prevent suicides, toward this end, it is important that I have the necessary knowledge to assimilate the information in this study, in a manner that will provide greater benefit not only to my

Day to day, teens suffer from peer pressure, problem from home, and stress from academics. Despise their status in the environment, majority of high school students refrain from acknowledging the presence of their reality. The problem in most situations in that students feel shut in, trapped in a never ending misery. How do they cope? What are their ways of dealing? Most students live in denial. Others have friends to confide in. For the devastating part, most students are not as open to these ideas and it leaves them with this alternative: suicide. Suicide is the third leading cause in teens the ages 14 to 19 within rural underserved areas. Suicidal ideation (SI), suicidal thoughts, were surveyed in over 12 high schools and it was found that in the past year, thoughts of (SI) were not shared with peers or even adults in the pursuit of receiving help or support (Pisani, 2012). Because a student spends most of their day at school, it is ideal for schools to provide realistic opportunities and school-based programs to assist with the suicide among the youth. The Surviving the Teens Suicide Prevention and Depression Awareness Program designed four 50 minute session or each high school student. This presented information in regards to factual information about depression, suicidal warning signs, suicidal risk factors and myths associated with suicide (King, 2010). The program provide coping strategies for everyday life, referral sources if feeling suicidal, and how to recognize

Advocacy: Public health nurses act as advocates to support a particular cause and to get the community involved in influencing the people and lawmakers about this concern (Lewenson & Truglio-Londrigan, 2013). Public health nurses and other members of the coalition can work with the Collier schools to create better wellness programs for kids and to change the school cafeteria menus for healthier choices. They can also work with the Collier County school system to create surveys about early smoking and sun exposure.

Children are vulnerable and are more expose to environmental toxins, their immune system is immature and may not be able to metabolize toxicant efficiently. Heavy metal like lead can be very toxic to the environment, most of the materials use by society contain toxic metals and because waste is discharged into the environment people can easy be affected by it (Swatantra, Neelam, Nitesh, Ritu & Panicker, 2014). Nurse have an obligation to stay current on healthcare policies in other to be able to identify and reduce health risk associated with the environment (Pope, Snyder, & Mood, 1995). Nurse Involving in public health and participating in federal-state policies could have help in identifying crisis like Flint and help find the best solution