Alaska Natives Speak Out About Depression and Suicide
December 16th, 2010
Nationwide, the suicide rate among young indigenous Americans is double the national average. It’s even higher in Alaska. At a recent conference, Alaska Natives spoke out about the depression, substance abuse, and suicide that they saw going untreated in their families and communities, and also about the stigma that drives people to drink or take drugs rather than pursuing therapy. Participants also provided suggestions to the Substance Abuse and Mental health Services Administration, the Indian Health Service, and the Department of Indian Affairs. Suggestions included placing a trained counselor living and working in each village or town, starting middle school suicide prevention programs, and reaching out to younger Alaska Natives and Native Americans via social networking, addressing economic burdens, and training people in suicide intervention skills.
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Comments
What is great is to see so many promising suggestions put forward at this meeting about how to help Alaskan natives. There seems to be no shortage of ideas at all on ways to address these high suicides rates and prevent them going higher. Let’s pray the money and resources follow.
it is impossible to deliver services to everybody equally but when a sizeable chunk of the population is having twice the problems,it sure is an issue and needs some serious looking into.
It always makes me so sad when I read about the plights that others face, abd even more so when these are the indigenous people of our land who have seemingly been thrown away and are never given the chance to succeed like many of us are. We have toally ignored their issues and have just left them to founder on what we deem to be just enough when in reality for many of them we have taken away so much that was sacred and important for them and their families. I am glad to see that they have been given a voice in all of this and that at least there are those who are seeking their opinions and who are fighting to get their experiences to the forefront of the national conscience.
it’s weird…indigenous people are always behind on scales of health,wealth and absolutely everything. I want to know the reason why this happens.
I’ve never been to Alaska and may have the totally wrong impression of it. Forgive my ignorance, but isn’t it all cold and ice all the time? I would hate that. The climate alone would depress me.
My heart goes out to the lady who lost her son to suicide because he feared seeing a doctor. It could have all been so different had he had easy access to a counselor and therapy. That is a tragedy and all stemming too from a teacher’s stupid, insensitive comment ten years before. I admire her courage in wanting to help others now and hope her dream outcome becomes a reality.
That teacher should not have ever been in a classroom emptying the trash can, never mind teaching, if that’s how he or she handles questions. There’s no such thing as a dumb question, especially in a classroom setting. Ole Teach probably didn’t know the answer.
The fact that there were so many suggestions on suicide prevention implied that this issue has been neglected for far too long. Obviously the people want something to be done about it and the time is now, not in a year or two. There are ideas there like the networking venues that could be implemented within a week.
They have always been treated as second class and just because you throw a bunch of money at something in no way means that the situation is going to be made right again. It becomes like a band aid but never the one thing that is going to make everything heal. How many programs do we have to waste money on before we see that this is the case? How about more education and promotion of better understanding of the people and the culture that so many of them have had to leave behind to integrate into society?
Online support should be added to the wishlist too and funded. That can be accessed from remote locations easily via the net. As Mr Vent said, he was depressed but had no one to talk to. We have the technology, so let’s use it!
I agree. Availing them of the world wide web could make a huge difference here. I don’t see why online training for counselors in remote villages couldn’t be done the same way. Federal agencies have the clout to do this, surely.
This has long been a problem in this community. Hope that this is something that can change though. It would eb sad to lose all of the history and culture that they continue to contribute.
Get out of that freezing cold state . Just by watching it on T.V. is depressing let alone living there. People if you can move out of alaska it is just not worth it. take care
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