In February 1995, the
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples released its special report on
suicide. Over several years, in 172 days of public hearings in 92
communities across Canada, the Commissioners heard that suicide was one
of the most urgent problems facing aboriginal communities. In addition,
the Commission in 1993 had held two special consultations on suicide
prevention in which national organizations represented aboriginal
people. Included were the Assembly of First Nations, the Native Women's
Association of Canada, the Native Council of Canada (now the Congress of
Aboriginal Peoples), the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, Pauktuutit (Inuit
Women's Association), and the Metis National Council.
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM The report points out
several problems in using existing data, especially since, for several
reasons, they underestimate the total picture. Data collection has
focused primarily on registered or status Indians and Inuit living in
the Northwest Territories and has excluded non-status Indians, Metis and
Inuit living elsewhere. Moreover, it may be difficult to determine
whether suicide is the cause of death in certain cases; it has been
estimated that up to 25% of accidental deaths among aboriginal people
are really unreported suicides. Although the true rate
of suicide was considered to be higher than existing data suggested, the
Commission estimated that suicide rates across all age groups of
aboriginal people were on average about three times higher than in the
non-aboriginal population. The suicide rate was placed at 3.3 times the
national average for registered Indians and 3.9 times for Inuit. Adolescents and young
adults were at highest risk. Among aboriginal youth aged 10 to 19 years,
the suicide rate was five to six times higher than among their
non-aboriginal peers; however, it is in the years between 20 and 29 that
both aboriginal and non-aboriginal people showed the highest rates of
suicide.
THE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS
The Commission report
identified four groups of major risk factors generally associated with
suicide; these were psycho-biological, situational, socio-economic, or
caused by culture stress. Culture stress was deemed to be particularly
significant for aboriginal people. While mental disorders
and illnesses associated with suicide (such as depression, anxiety
disorders and schizophrenia) were documented less often among aboriginal
people, community health providers suggested that unresolved grief may
be a widespread psycho-biological problem. Situational factors were
considered to be more relevant. The disruptions of family life
experienced as a result of enforced attendance at boarding schools,
adoption, and fly-out hospitalizations, often for long-term illnesses
like tuberculosis, were seen as contributing to suicide. To this was
added the increasing use of alcohol and drugs to relieve unhappiness.
Studies of aboriginal people who have committed suicide have found that
as many as 90% of victims had alcohol in their blood. Brain damage or
paranoid psychosis as a result of the chronic use of solvents is
reported as a major factor in suicides by youth. Socio-economic factors,
such as high rates of poverty, low levels of education, limited
employment opportunities, inadequate housing, and deficiencies in
sanitation and water quality, affect a disproportionately high number of
aboriginal people. In conditions such as these, people are more likely
to develop feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that can lead to
suicide. Culture stress is a term
used to refer to the loss of confidence in the ways of understanding
life and living that have been taught within a particular culture. It
comes about when the complex of relationships, knowledge, languages,
social institutions, beliefs, values, and ethical rules that bind a
people and give them a collective sense of who they are and where they
belong is subjected to change. For aboriginal people, such things as
loss of land and control over living conditions, suppression of belief
systems and spirituality, weakening of social and political
institutions, and racial discrimination have seriously damaged their
confidence and thus predisposed them to suicide, self-injury and other
self-destructive behaviours.
SUICIDE PREVENTION: SOME COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
In addition to the
despair voiced about suicide, the Commission heard about suicide
prevention initiatives that have emanated from individual, community and
regional determination to make a difference. Each initiative was unique.
Some aimed directly at preventing suicide and others aimed more broadly
at affecting the causes and consequences of all violent and
self-destructive behaviour. Six such initiatives are described in the
report. They included efforts at the Wikwemikong Reserve on Manitoulin
Island in Lake Huron, Ontario; at the Big Cove Reserve in New Brunswick;
throughout the Northwest Territories; on the streets of North End
Winnipeg, Manitoba; at Canim Lake in the central interior region of
British Columbia; and within the communities making up the Meadow Lake
Tribal Council in northwestern Saskatchewan. The efforts at
Wikwemikong started in the mid-1970s, when seven suicides took place in
a small sector of the community. Following an inquest and research into
the events, two local service agencies were funded.
Rainbow Lodge, now
called Ngwaagan Gamig Recovery Centre, was established as a non-medical
alcohol and drug treatment and prevention (outreach) facility while the
Wikwemikong Counselling Service, now called Nadmadwin Mental Health
Clinic, was set up as an independent mental health support service. The
presence of these facilities, along with increased public awareness,
collective responsibility and community development, are credited with
building the psychological stability currently enjoyed by the community. Seven suicides and 75
attempted suicides occurred at Big Cove in 1992. An inquest recommended
restriction of drugs and alcohol, job creation, provision of permanent
on-reserve mental health services, and movement toward self-government.
Community caregivers began collective consultation to determine what
kind of community Big Cove could become if people took responsibility
for improving it. This group supported
greater reliance on traditional values, rituals and healing ceremonies
for dealing with the underlying problems of family and community
breakdown. A week-long community gathering for mourning and healing,
combining Micmac spirituality, Christianity and western psychotherapy,
was arranged. At a final community sharing circle, recommendations
touched on issues ranging from responsibilities within the community to
racism outside it. In the Northwest
Territories in 1989, a debate in the legislative assembly on suicide
among aboriginal people led to the appointment of a co-ordinator to
develop a comprehensive strategy and the beginning of a suicide
prevention program. A 1990 grassroots forum in Rankin Inlet sparked a
series of seven regional forums bringing together more than 300 people.
Recommendations were
made for all territorial departments to contribute to strengthening
families and communities and for resources to be aimed at
community-based initiatives. The need for a territory-wide training
initiative led to a partnership of the GNWT, the Canadian Mental Health
Association and the Muttart Foundation of Edmonton. The resulting
Suicide Prevention Curriculum trains people working at the grassroots
level in their communities - alcohol and drug counsellors, community
health representatives, women's shelter workers - to pass on their
expertise to others. On the streets of North
End Winnipeg, the Bear Clan Patrol, a volunteer force, works to protect
the vulnerable in this urban aboriginal community from violence and
exploitation. The concerns about street safety were raised at the annual
aboriginal youth assembly in 1991 and were taken up by the Ma Mawi Wi
Chi Itata centre, an aboriginal child and family welfare agency. Made up
of volunteers who receive about 20 hours of training in first aid,
safety precautions and conflict resolution, the Patrol deals with the
harassment of women and children on the streets, intoxication and
overdoses, family violence and threats of suicide. At Canim Lake in the
mid-1970s, attempt were made to address serious problems by turning the
community from rampant alcoholism to almost total sobriety. When the
problems persisted, further probing by community leaders revealed abuse
within the community. The perpetrators had themselves been victims of
physical and sexual abuse at St. Joseph's Residential School, which they
had been forced to attend between the ages of 6 and 16 years of age. The
fight to overcome addiction and abuse ranged from therapy and
traditional ceremonies to treatment programs based on Shuswap models of
justice. The Meadow Lake Tribal
Council saw in the mid-1980s that the children in the communities were
lacking both a nurturing environment for development and a cultural
sense of language and traditions. At the same time, no child care was
available when adults were attending school or substance abuse
treatment. After months of discussion, a plan for community-based child
care was developed; it was guided by First Nations culture, traditions
and values and adhered to the highest education and care standards. A
partnership with the University of Victoria's School of Child and Youth
Care provided a curriculum adapted to the needs and priorities of the
community. Training and child care facilities are housed in a building
known as the Wakayos Child Care Education Centre where a shift to
concern for children and families is promoted.
BARRIERS AND SOLUTIONS The Commission
acknowledges that some of the barriers to change are in the aboriginal
communities themselves. It points out that community leaders are often
more interested in economic development and self-government than social
problems; that the events and risk factors associated with suicide
create shame and secrecy; that adults fail to act as role models for the
young; and that conflicts and rivalries in communities prevent action.
However, it also notes that non-aboriginal control over programs and
resources has resulted in little response to calls for long-term
prevention; uncoordinated emergency measures; no comprehensive,
nation-wide mental health policy; unequal access to programs and
resources; confusion due to multiple funding sources; and inadequate
information and training resources. The Framework for Action
proposed by the Commission recommends a Canada-wide three-part response
to suicide that is community-based. It encompasses the establishment of
direct suicide crisis services, the provision of resources for broad
preventive action through community development, and the building of
support for self-determination, self-sufficiency, healing and
reconciliation. This approach is to be based on seven elements: cultural
and spiritual revitalization; strengthened family and community bonds;
focus on children and youth; holism; whole-community involvement;
partnership; and community control. In addition, the Royal
Commission has specified some particular goals. A ten-year timetable is
to be established for meeting the primary aims of the Canada-wide
campaign to prevent aboriginal suicide and self-injury. By 1997, every
aboriginal community must have at least one resource person trained in
suicide prevention, intervention and grief support techniques. By 1998,
each community must have a resource person trained in community
development planning and methods. A National Forum on the Prevention of
Suicide among Aboriginal people is to be held in the first year and
every three years thereafter until the tenth year of the campaign.
CONCLUSION On its release, the
Royal Commission report was both criticized for promoting traditional
solutions that would stall modernization in aboriginal communities and
praised for attempting to address a complex problem and to move
aboriginal communities toward health and wellness on all levels. One
Commissioner declined to endorse the overall policy view while
emphasizing the need for appropriate measures in communities where
suicide is a concern. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive
approach to a problem that is of increasing concern for aboriginal communities in general and for their children and youths in particular. | 
