Canada leading global study on Inuit suicide prevention

Canada is leading an international effort to pull together themost effective ways to prevent suicide among aboriginal youth in theArctic, an ongoing tragedy across the circumpolar world.

This month, officials from the eight countries that ring theNorth Pole gave final approval for researchers to visit northernaboriginal communities to study how they're dealing with theproblem.

Nunavut's chief coroner called a special inquiry in January after45 people killed themselves in 2013 -- a significant increase fromthe previous high of 34.

That record number put the territory's suicide rate at more than 13 times the national average.

But it's bad elsewhere, too.

Suicide rates among Alaskan aboriginals are about three times theUnited States average. In Greenland, 2010 government data reportedabout one suicide a week in a population of about 56,000.

Statistics in Norway, Sweden and Finland for the aboriginal Saamipopulation are difficult to tease out. But available data suggestssuicide and mental health are issues in their communities as well.

"I think that's clearly why the Saami health leadership as wellas the government of Norway is supportive of this project," saidMalcolm King, science director for the Canadian Institutes of HealthResearch, which is co-ordinating the project.

Teams are already at work in the participating countries ofCanada, the U.S., Norway, Sweden and Denmark, King said. He's hopingRussia, which is also said to suffer high Arctic aboriginal suiciderates, will join.

Good programming involves youth

Suicide across the circumpolar world seems to have some commonfeatures, said King. It affects predominantly young people up totheir mid-20s, and seems to involve rapid cultural displacement thatArctic people faced as southern governments exerted their authorityover their northern regions.

"A common thread that's emerged in a lot of this so far is whatwe might call cultural continuity," he said."Issues around formation of identity, and disconnections withthe community. That may not sit as a cause in mainstream thinking,but it certainly has been talked about a lot as a common threadamong indigenous peoples."

King said common themes are also beginning to emerge about themost effective prevention programs.

"There are certainly some indications that involving youth invarious ways in finding their own pathway to mental wellness is animportant part of projects," he said. "Good practice models allinvolved active participation of youth."

Often, those models are as simple as giving youth a voice, suchas a photography, theatre or film project. Some involve peer supportthrough social media.

"They get people thinking positively about their mentalwell-being, providing a positive alternative to what otherwise mightbe negative," King said. "Overcoming a sense of being alone, initself, is probably a good thing."

The government of Nunavut has long run suicide preventionprograms of its own. Mental-health advocates say services in theArctic don't even come close to meeting the demand. They point outNunavut doesn't even have a residential substance abuse program.

The overall report is expected at the next Arctic Council meetingin March in Iqaluit. The Canadian government has contributed $1million to the project.