Stronger Indigenous culture would cut suicide rates, health congress told
Stronger Indigenous culture would cut suicide rates, health congress told
World Congress on Public Health told focus on drug and alcohol abuse not enough to reduce global suicide rates
Calla Wahlquist
@callapilla
Tuesday 4 April 2017 19.37 EDT
The solution to reducing the staggering rates of suicide among indigenous communities worldwide lies in strengthening culture rather than just focusing on issues such as drug and alcohol abuse, experts at a global conference have said.
Suicide is a leading cause of death among young indigenous people worldwide and efforts to solve the problem using methods developed in non-indigenous communities have not reversed the trend.
Speaking at the World Congress on Public Health in Melbourne, Canadian First Nations woman Carol Hopkins, from the Lenape Nation at Moraviantown, Ontario, said Canadian First Nations people were turning to creation stories as a way to build resillience and strengthen identity for the whole community.
She referred to a project by the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation in Canada, of which she is executive director, which used indigenous concepts of wellness to develop an model specifically designed to assess the mental health of First Nations peoples.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/05/stronger-indigenous-culture-would-cut-suicide-rates-health-congress-told
