(MintPress) — Suicide rates amongst Americans have been on the rise in recent years, and experts say this epidemic is closely tied to tough economic times.
However, indigenous peoples from the United States to Australia are seeing an even worse problem with suicide than the general population, as rates are skyrocketing, according to studies on the issue.
But despite efforts to prevent suicide and curb the problem in the U.S. having made their way to Congress, the issue persists in having a devastating and disproportionate effect on indigenous communities.
“When we think about the contributing factors, alcohol, substance abuse, mental illness and depression are strongly associated with suicide,” said Dr. LaVonne Ortega, of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in an interview with MintPress Tuesday.
All of these factors are issues experienced by many Native American communities today.
Suicide rates in Native communities
In Alaska, a recent study uncovered that the average suicide rate of Alaska Natives was more than two times higher than non-Natives.
“We see that Alaska Native and American Indians have the highest suicide rates,” Ortega confirmed, when comparing those groups to other ethnic populations in the U.S.
Moreover, the report from the state department of epidemiology, which studied data from the years 2003-2008, found that there were no statistically significant changes over the five year period in suicide rates.
In the U.S., tribal suicide rates are 70 percent higher than for the general population, and the youth suicide rate is even higher. On some reservations youth suicide rates are 10 times the national average.
The study also said that 65 percent of all violent deaths in Alaska from 2003-2008 were attributed to suicide, with firearms being the major method of self-inflicted injury leading to a suicide.
And the problem is mirrored in Australia, a country with a large indigenous population, as suicide among Aboriginal communities has risen to three to four times the rate of non-Aboriginal suicide.
“Aboriginal people commit suicide, on average, at a far younger age than non-Aboriginal Australians, with reports of prepubescent children, some as young as eight committing suicide.
“The rise in suicide in recent decades is not a solitary phenomenon — it is happening around the globe to many colonized races. The Inuit people of Canada, Native Americans and New Zealand Maoris are exhibiting the same behavioural patterns,” writes Kate Horowitz, of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.
Colin Tatz, a professor at Australian National University, says that the history of colonization is partly to account for the high rate of suicides in native populations across the globe.
“It’s the process of decolonization: the withdrawal of structures,” he said. “And even though they were lousy structures. And they were draconian and they were nasty and they were oppressive and they were anti-human rights, and all of those things. I am not for a moment suggesting we go back to those things.”
Tatz also points to an endless death and grief within Aboriginal communities as another contributor to suicide. “The cycle of death and knowing what death is. Aboriginal kids know what death is a lot earlier than any of us. There are sustained levels of grief in such high levels. Not cycles of grief but continuous and this affects children profoundly,” Tatz said.
Ortega says that while the reasons for suicide are often a multitude of factors, even within a particular individual, she noted a similar trend in populations of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the U.S.
“When we speak to them (American Indians and Alaska Natives) we hear them talk about the effects of historical trauma,” Ortega said.
Political push for prevention
To address the problem, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held an oversight hearing in March of 2010 which they called, “The Preventable Epidemic: Youth Suicides and the Urgent Need for Mental Health Care Resources in Indian Country.”
Randy Grinnell, Deputy Director of the Indian Health Services, testified, saying, “Suicide is the second leading cause of death (behind unintentional injuries) for Indian youth ages 15-24 residing in IHS service areas and is 3.5 times higher than the national average.”
Coloradas Mangas, a 15-year-old from the Mescalero Apache Reservation in Ruidoso, N.M. also testified at the hearing. When asked why he thought young Native Americans are killing themselves, he shared a personal story.
“Things go wrong that they can’t change,” Indian Country Today Media Network reported.
“They don’t get shown the love they need. They say, ‘You don’t love me when I was here. Now you love me when I’m not here.’”
Mangas himself carried out a failed suicide attempt in the past, and said that he wanted to testify to help other young people not be ashamed to reach out for help.
“Every year, several communities in Indian Country experience crisis episodes during which suicides take on a particularly ominous and seemingly contagious form, often referred to as suicide clusters. In these communities, the suicidal act becomes a regular and transmittable form of expression of the despair and hopelessness experienced by some Indian youth. While most vividly and painfully expressed in these communities, suicide and suicidal behavior and their consequences send shockwaves through many communities in Indian Country, including urban communities,” Grinnell said.
Later in 2010, Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, said the rate of youth suicide in Indian Country is a crisis that demands urgent attention, according to a report from the Native American Times.
“It is an ongoing tragedy, made more so by the fact that it is so preventable,” Dorgan said. “Native Americans need more mental health providers and resources, and if they had them, many of these deaths could be prevented.”
Dorgan said the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, approved as the part of the health care overhaul signed by President Barack Obama in 2010, would authorize a comprehensive youth suicide prevention effort on Indian reservations. The bill also boosts mental health resources throughout Indian Country.
“We are doing everything we can to recognize (the suicide problem) and put a spotlight on it and understand how to address it, in order to save the lives of young people,” Dorgan said.
But despite the Indian Health Care Improvement Act being made permanent in 2010, high suicide rates in Native communities still persist.
The CDC says it has consultations with tribes in the U.S., in which they meet on a yearly basis to discuss issues of importance affecting the health of tribal members.
Tough economic times drives suicide rates up overall
The Center for Disease Control has issued a report which showed that the United States has experienced its highest suicide rate in 15 years.
The CDC report showed that between 2008 and 2009, the suicide rate increased 2.4 percent, with 36,909 suicide deaths reported nationally.
“The overall suicide rate rises and falls in connection with the economy,” the CDC said in its study, entitled “Impact of Business Cycles on the U.S. Suicide Rates, 1928–2007”. The study was the first of its kind to examine the relationships between age-specific suicide rates and business cycles. The study found the strongest association between business cycles and suicide among people in prime working ages, 25-64 years old.
In the U.S., men and women between 45 and 54 years old have the highest suicide rates in the country among nine different age groups.
“Knowing suicides increased during economic recessions and fell during expansions underscores the need for additional suicide prevention measures when the economy weakens,” said James Mercy, Ph.D., acting director of CDC’s Injury Center’s Division of Violence Prevention. “It is an important finding for policy makers and those working to prevent suicide.”
Women seek help for suicidal thoughts more often than men and added that “acknowledging the problem” was a crucial step to getting help.
“Economic problems can impact how people feel about themselves and their futures as well as their relationships with family and friends. Economic downturns can also disrupt entire communities,” said Feijun Luo, Ph.D., an economist in CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention and the study’s lead author. “We know suicide is not caused by any one factor – it is often a combination of many that lead to suicide. But there are many opportunities for prevention. Prevention strategies can focus on individuals, families, neighborhoods or entire communities to reduce risk factors.”
Prevention efforts
The CDC also points out that there may also be specific communities where prevention programs could be of greatest need, such as in areas which are disproportionately affected by recessions.
Some of the strategies the CDC recommends for curbing the rate of suicide include providing social support and counseling services to those who lose jobs or homes.
More than 1.2 million households were lost to the recession, according to a report issued by the Mortgage Bankers Association that looked at data between 2005 and 2008. And that number doesn’t include information up until the present, when job losses and foreclosures have continued to rise.
The CDC also says that promoting individual, family and community connectedness; a greater degrees of social integration; and positive attachments to community organizations, like schools and churches, all serve as protective factors against suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
Lastly, the agency points out that increasing the accessibility of prevention services, like crisis centers and other community services, are important measures in correcting the problem.
European countries with strong social safety nets and services have shown little increase in suicide rates, even in tough economic times, according to data from the World Health Organization.