Spate of suicide attempts leaves Canadian indigenous community reeling

[fuego]

Didn't know if you had seen this AJ:

Story highlights

• Remote First Nation community declares state of emergency after 11 attempted suicides in one day
• Over 100 suicides have been attempted in the community in a little over seven months
• Mental health issues are a key concern in indigenous communities

(CNN)In the beleaguered, isolated community of the Ontario First Nation of Attawapiskat, one of the greatest dangers comes from within.
The 2,000-strong indigenous community in the far north of the Canadian province has seen a spate of suicide attempts over the past eight months -- over 100 members, young and old, have tried to take their own lives.

The situation came to a heartbreaking head this weekend, as community leaders in the tiny James Bay town were forced to declare a formal state of emergency after 11 people attempted to kill themselves Saturday.



"Community front line resources are exhausted, and no additional outside resources are available," the declaration says.

Saturday's shocking revelations follow another tragic month -- 28 Attawapiskat residents attempted suicide in March, more than 100 since September of last year.

CNN news partner CBC reports that amongst the dozens of suicide attempts, the youngest person was 11 years old, while the oldest was 71. One person has successfully taken their life since September.

The Assembly of First Nations, an organization representing indigenous people in Canada, said this is "a national tragedy and a national shame that demands immediate action and attention."

"First Nation" refers to non-Inuit and non-Metis indigenous people in Canada. There are 617 First Nation communities across the country.

"We repeat our call for a national strategy to address First Nations suicide," the Assembly's national chief, Perry Bellegarde, said.

This isn't the first time that suicide has prompted a state of emergency in Canada. The Pimicikamak Cree Nation community in northern Manitoba last month declared their own state of emergency after enduring six self-inflcted deaths over a period of just a few months.


'Long-standing' mental health issues

CNN news partner CTV reports that the declaration of the state of emergency has prompted the dispatch of a crisis unit from the Nishnawbe Aski nation, along with two mental health counselors from Health Canada.

"We recognize that there are serious and long-standing issues of mental health and addiction in some communities," CTV quoted Health Canada spokesman Sean Upton as saying.

"I'm asking friends, government, that we need help in our community," Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh said, according to CBC. "I have relatives that have attempted to take their own lives ... cousins, friends."

He believes the attempts are linked to issues including overcrowding, bullying, addiction and the continuing impact of residential schools.

"These people are feeling the pain," he says.

Crisis mental health workers stationed within the community are "burned out," the community council's Deputy Grand Chief Rebecca Friday added.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reacted to the news Sunday, calling the announcement "heartbreaking."

He pledged to "improve living conditions for all Indigenous peoples" in a tweet.



Endemic problem?

Many First Nation communities struggle with depression, high unemployment and drug abuse.

"We don't have access to what everyone else has in the rest of the country," Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Sheila North Wilson said. "Whether it be access to jobs, access to good education, access to ... the nicer things in life. We feel left out."

One study in 1994, which focused in British Columbia communities, found that some indigenous or First Nations groups had youth suicide rates that are among the highest of any culturally identifiable group in the world.

Another, from the University of Victoria, found suicide rates among the young in these communities up to 800 times the national average.

Across the border from British Columbia, a report from the Alaskan Department of Health and Social Services found that the suicide rate gets higher the further north a community is located.

Charlie Angus, a Canadian Parliament member from Timmins-James Bay, says that the problem is systemic in his region, and that his constituents suffered by virtue of their background.

A similar declaration in other constituencies, he suggested to CTV, would warrant "an immediate response."

"I've lost count of the states of emergency in the James Bay region since I was elected."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/11/americ...ncy/index.html

[A.J.]

Yes. It's national headline news. And it's not the first reserve with this problem. The people on the remote reserves live in the absolute worst conditions.

[Colonel]

Its strange. People all over the world live in worse conditions without having extreme suicide rates. A lack of true community and a spirit of hopelessness ? Maybe even a culture for suicide as can be seen in places in India.

[njtom]

Tragic, and I'm praying for them.

Sorry to say, but this is what happens when a people's natural way of life is stripped away from them.

[Colonel]

Tragic, and I'm praying for them.

Sorry to say, but this is what happens when a people's natural way of life is stripped away from them.

Reminds me of the increasing rates of psychological problems among people here who have everything they need materially, including youths who live in stable families. There is something that is being stripped away from the culture. It takes decades or centuries to take hold but it doesn't bode well for the future.

[A.J.]

Tragic, and I'm praying for them.

Sorry to say, but this is what happens when a people's natural way of life is stripped away from them.

That's absolutely true. Canada had a "school system" they called Residential Schools, funded by the government and run by churches. The aboriginal children were torn away from their families, beaten if they spoke their native languages, and all too often, sexually, verbally, emotionally and physically abused. These are the people who raised today's young adults, who are raising kids now. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Here's a link, if you want to read about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadi..._school_system

[CatchyUsername]

I think Japan tops the list, not sure. Talk about a suicide culture.....

Its strange. People all over the world live in worse conditions without having extreme suicide rates. A lack of true community and a spirit of hopelessness ? Maybe even a culture for suicide as can be seen in places in India.

[krystian]

Didn't know if you had seen this AJ:

Story highlights

• Remote First Nation community declares state of emergency after 11 attempted suicides in one day
• Over 100 suicides have been attempted in the community in a little over seven months
• Mental health issues are a key concern in indigenous communities

(CNN)In the beleaguered, isolated community of the Ontario First Nation of Attawapiskat, one of the greatest dangers comes from within.
The 2,000-strong indigenous community in the far north of the Canadian province has seen a spate of suicide attempts over the past eight months -- over 100 members, young and old, have tried to take their own lives...

I didn't read the articles but its odd that an outbreak of suicides just suddenly happened, you have to wonder if something suddenly changed in their community. One of my first thoughts was did some well meaning government agency decide to hand out drugs like SSRI's to them.

[A.J.]

I didn't read the articles but its odd that an outbreak of suicides just suddenly happened, you have to wonder if something suddenly changed in their community. One of my first thoughts was did some well meaning government agency decide to hand out drugs like SSRI's to them.

It's nothing new, unfortunately, it's just that the rate has increased.

And with the govt introducing the assisted suicide law, I can see it affecting the native communities in very negative ways.

[A.J.]

The Ontario reserve that declared a state of emergency over a stunning chain of attempted suicides sent 13 teenagers to hospital on Monday after discovering they allegedly made a suicide pact.

The young people were detained when officials learned of the pact, according to Anna Betty Achneepineskum of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the umbrella organization for northern Ontario reserves.

Achneepineskum said the teens were sent to the local hospital in Attawapiskat, Ont., to remain under watch.

“This community needs help right now,” said Attawapiskat resident Wayne Fireman, a father of young children who says he is worried for their future in the remote Ontario First Nation.

That is why it is so crucial to put a long-term mental health plan in place, rather than just a quick fix of emergency assistance, said Dr. Ian Manion, who is with The Royal hospital in Ottawa.

“There is no single suicide that can occur in a community like that that doesn’t ripple through the entire community,” said Manion, who is director of the hospital’s youth mental health research unit.

Manion and others who study suicide say clusters such as the one that occurred over the weekend in Attawapiskat, where 11 people attempted suicide in a single day, can be contagious. That is, they can make other members of the community more vulnerable to attempting suicide themselves.

There are no specialized mental health workers in the community of 2,000, where more than 100 people have tried to take their lives in the past seven months, according to the chief.

One Attawapiskat family, whose 13-year-old niece died last fall after hanging herself, said they fly to Timmins once a month for counselling to help deal with her death and another suicide in the family.

Suicide clusters can become normalized without positive intervention, Manion said.

“Imagine if you are a young person in a small community and someone that you know dies by suicide. They might be someone you knew, or someone you looked up to. If they can’t cope, how do you interpret your own ability to cope?”

Manion said one northern community he was aware of described how young people began going to school with ropes in their knapsacks “in case it was their turn.”

Although suicide clusters are relatively rare, Heather Stuart, the Bell Canada anti-stigma and mental health research chair at Queen’s University, said they can become the “cultural script.”

“They have every problem you could imagine, including remoteness, lack of things to do, the living conditions are terrible,” she said of Attawapiskat. “What happens with suicides is people start to see this as their only way out.”

Ronald Niezen, a Canada research chair of anthropology in law at McGill University, watched a suicide crisis unfold when he lived in the northern Manitoba First Nation of Cross Lake for several years in the late 1990s doing research.

He said he saw first-hand how it affected the entire community and how people would talk openly about suicide, even joke about it.

Suicides can take place in large numbers as a response to “shared circumstances of political neglect and lack of possibility.

“So self-destruction becomes the one act that gives people a sense of making themselves known or recognized as a person.”

Niezen and Manion both note there are many communities that are resilient.

In many of those, Niezen said, “There have been political institutions that have strengthened the community, they have a sense of autonomy, they have a clear sense of identity, they have built those institutions that give people a sense of place and possibility.”


http://news.nationalpost.com/news/ca...r-suicide-pact