Innovation Anthology #347:
The rate of suicide among aboriginal youth can be as high as 8 times the national average in some communities.
That was one of many topics discussed at a recent journalists’ workshop on aboriginal health hosted by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Dr. Michel Tousignant from the University of Quebec in Montreal has found that suicide can be concentrated in some aboriginal families.
DR. MICHEL TOUSIGNANT: We see a lot of men who commit suicide had a brother who committed suicide That’s 40 percent, And you know, that’s understandable that the brothers will live together, they will celebrate together, they will drink together, they will have fun they will cry together. Whereas in the general Canadian population, after you get to adolescence each will go their own way, so they are more autonomous. So that if one brother commits suicide, it won’t impact so much on the rest of the family as you find in aboriginal communities.
Dr. Tousignant points to the role of residential schools in the breakdown of aboriginal culture as a contributing factor to the high rate of suicide.
Thanks today to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Program Date: 2010-10-21