Suicide deaths among the White Mountain Apache tribe in Arizona dropped by nearly 40 percent between 2006 and 2012 compared to the previous six-year period due to community-based efforts, according to a new study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. From 2001 to 2006, the suicide rate among 15- to 24-year-olds […]
Reservation
Affordable Care Act: What Native Youth Need To Know Toolkit
With the passing the Affordable Care Act, American Indian and Alaska Native individuals (AI/AN) received unprecedented access health care systems. Special benefits and protections specifically codified for improved access to quality healthcare systems were put in place for AI/AN’s. The National Indian Health Board works daily with a variety of federal partners provide outreach and […]
Preventing and Responding to Suicide Clusters in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities
Between 2009 and 2011, two tribal communities located approximately 3,000 miles apart—an American Indian tribe on a reservation in New Mexico and a group of closely knit Alaska Native villages in western Alaska—experienced clusters of youth suicides. Across these communities, 25 young people, all American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN), took their own lives. At least 28 others attempted suicide, 19 of whom […]
Surveillance Success Stories: Fort Peck Indian Reservation
Following a coordinated emergency response to a suicide cluster in 2010, tribal leaders began collecting data from multiple sources to describe detailed circumstances of suicide ideation, attempts and deaths. This allowed them to identify the role of substance abuse in suicide attempts and initiate family education for family members of previously suicidal individuals when they […]
Advancing Health Equity for Native American Youth: Workshop Summary
More than 2 million Americans below age 24 self-identify as being of American Indian or Alaska Native descent. Many of the serious behavioral, emotional, and physical health concerns facing young people today are especially prevalent with Native youth (e.g., depression, violence, and substance abuse). Adolescent Native Americans have death rates two to five times the […]
Community Resources for Suicide Prevention in Indian Country
To highlight the resilience and strength of American Indian and Alaska Native people, and to encourage those communities who have or are currently experiencing the devastation of suicide, the Tribal Youth Training and Technical Assistance Center in collaboration with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center presented a webinar to help Tribes and communities learn more about […]