American Indian/Alaska Native Settings
Suicide prevention is a high priority for people working to promote wellness and reduce health disparities affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN). Drawing on strengths within Native traditions, community leaders and experts are developing models that are culturally based to promote mental health and prevent suicide for future generations.
Why Address Suicide Prevention
- Many AI/AN communities experience an elevated suicide rate.1
- AI/AN communities may lack access to suicide prevention programs that meet their cultural needs.
How AI/AN Communities Can Take Action
The best way to prevent suicide is to use a culturally relevant, contextually driven, comprehensive approach that includes these key components:
- Promote culturally competent practices that increase protective factors and reduce risk.
- Connect the community’s resources to create a shared vision of wellness.
- Gather information from Elders and community members to gain knowledge and understand the issue of suicide in the community where you are working.
Reference
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014). Fatal injury reports, national and regional, 1999–2014. Retrieved from http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_us.html.
Learn More
- See the Recommended Resources below selected by SPRC personnel.
- See All Resources Related to American Indian/Alaska Native Settings for a full list of materials, programs, trainings, and other information available from SPRC. Use the filters on the left to narrow your results.
- For more on other settings and groups, see our Settings and Populations pages.
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Recommended Resources
Transforming Tribal Communities: Indigenous Perspectives on Suicide Prevention
These brief webinar clips feature expert advice on addressing the root causes of suicide and mental health issues in tribal communities.
To Live to See the Great Day That Dawns: Preventing Suicide by American Indian and Alaska Native Youth and Young Adults
The purpose of this guide is to support AI/AN communities and those who serve them in developing effective, culturally appropriate suicide prevention plans. This guide lays the groundwork for comprehensive prevention planning, with prevention broadly defined to include programs that a community can use to promote the mental health of its youth. The guide also […]
Walking Softly to Heal: The Importance of Community Readiness
These resources provide information on how to assess, understand and measure how ready a community is to address issues like suicide, and how to use that knowledge to stimulate change. The Community Readiness Model (CRM), developed at Colorado State University identifies dimensions, such as leadership involvement, knowledge of the problem, levels of community readiness and […]
Healthy Indian Country Initiative Promising Prevention Practices Resource Guide
The purpose of this resource guide is to highlight the work of the 14 Healthy Indian Country Initiative Tribal grantees’ prevention projects/programs, including suicide prevention programs, and to provide information for other tribal communities to examine these community-based prevention practices and learn strategies and lessons for effective implementation of prevention programs. The long-term goal of this […]
Adolescent Suicide Prevention Program Manual: A Public Health Model for Native American Communities
This manual describes the Adolescent Suicide Prevention Program, conducted from 1989 to 2005.