First Nations and Metis Youth Suicide in Saskatchewan

First Nations and Métis Youth Suicide in Saskatchewan:
The Need for a National Collaborative Population Health Model in
Research and Policy
Kelly Patrick
#10838821
CHEP 813.3
April 9, 2010

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Introduction
With the incidence of suicide in aboriginal communities throughout Canada greatly
increasing over the years, a more effective means of studying, measuring and responding to youth
suicide is needed in order to identify, address and prevent conditions which contribute to the despair
and hopelessness which leads young aboriginal Canadians to end their lives to leave their loved ones
and community behind to grieve and not ask why, but why can this not be prevented?
Historically across Canada Canadian, First Nations, Métis and Inuit governance has created
jurisdictional separation in the area of health. This has kept all groups apart, not knowing what the
other is doing nor feeling responsible to each other, to those who live in our towns, our cities, our
provinces and our nation. Aboriginal youth suicide in Canada is a tragic but perfect opportunity for
aboriginal and non aboriginal political leaders, academics and health care officials to come together
and address the truth as to why aboriginal youth see and feel no hope.
Considering aboriginal youth is the fastest growing demographic in Canada, there is no better
time than now to address aboriginal youth suicide head on. If not, the cost to the nation as a whole
will be greater than the indelible negative cost currently in remote communities scattered throughout
this country.
This paper will provide current statistics on aboriginal youth suicide in Canada, specifically in
Saskatchewan; a review of research and the need for a change in direction; and government response
to aboriginal youth suicide. It will further propose the need for a population health model which
brings together aboriginal governance and community based agencies, Federal and Provincial policy
agencies, academics and health care providers, to collaborate on establishing means to research
properly aboriginal youth suicide. The model would develop and implement a long term strategic

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mechanism which engages communities to provide sustained leadership and government programs
that unite nationally the sporadic and isolated approach currently taken in the area of aboriginal
youth suicide research, policy and prevention strategies.
Suicide - Canadian and Saskatchewan Stats
According to Statistics Canada, suicide is the second leading cause of death in Canadian youth
ages 13-19 and the leading cause for those ages 25-34. The statistics indicate that males kill
themselves three times more often than females, supposedly due to the use of more lethal methods.
Across the lifespan, aboriginal youth between the ages of 15-25 are at the highest risk of
suicide. Those living on a reserve are six times more likely to die by suicide than their non-native
peers; those living within cities have a suicide rate equal to non-native youth. First Nations/Inuit are
eleven times more likely to commit suicide than their non-aboriginal counterparts. (www.hc-
sc.gc.ca/fniah-spnia/promotion/suicide/index-eng.php)
Although there is a lack of conclusive research on aboriginal mental illness and addictions
and its relation to the cause of suicide, Statistics Canada does provide data indicating 60% of
aboriginal people who die by suicide were intoxicated. This is compared to 40% of non-native
people who were intoxicated at the time of the suicide. (www.nandecade.ca/article/aboriginal-
suicide-statistics-71.asp)
The trauma and effects of sexual abuse on an individual are devastating and can increase a
person's suicide risk nine times. The effects of aboriginal residential school abuse suffered by many
First Nations and Métis Canadians, the sexual behavoir and further abuse by victims on family
members has gone undetected in aboriginal youth suicide research leaving large gaps in
understanding social determinants that may lead to suicide in aboriginal youth.

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If an aboriginal youth is gay, lesbian or bisexual they are up to six times more likely to die by
suicide due to homophobic discrimination, lack of healthy role models and lack of support.
Copycat suicides or clusters are increasingly occurring after an aboriginal youth commits
suicide. Friends, girlfriends, sisters and brothers are vulnerable as the demoralizing effect grips the
family and community who feel sad and guilty and are helpless in their grief.
The following two charts show a 5-year average suicide rate in Northern Saskatchewan by
Health Authority between 1998-2007 (Fig. 1) and age-sex adjusted rate of persons hospitalized with
injuries due to suicide attempt and self-inflicted harm between 1995 and 2005 (Fig. 2). Figure 2
shows a comparison of not only Northern Saskatchewan health authorities but all other regional
health authorities throughout the province.
Figure 1: Suicide Rate, 5-yr Average, Northern Saskatchewan by Health
Authority, 1998-2007 (not age-standardized)

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Figure 2: Age-sex adjusted rate of persons hospitalized with injuries due to
suicide attempt and self-inflicted harm 1995 – 2005
Source: Saskatchewan Comprehensive Injury Surveillance Report, 1995-2005
However incomplete or inconsistent with actual suicide rates to reported rates of suicide, these
numbers show an alarming rate of suicide and self inflicted harm in Northern Saskatchewan, where
the population is 62.7% First Nations, 21% Metis and 14.7% non aborignal. (APS 2006)
First Nation and Métis Health Indicators and Socio Economic Status
From birth and throughout the course of one’s life, the relationship one has with parents,
where one lives and how one can sustain independence and self sufficiency all depend on family
structure, education and employment. If there is significant dysfunction and gaps in these three

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social and economic indicators, the chance of individual confidence and personal success is greatly
reduced. If one is not provided proper supports and is confronted with a lack of opportunity
depression, anxiety and hopelessness, measured by mental illness, increases.
Family Structure
Nishnawbe Aski Nation of Ontario, a northern reserve who has suffered greatly with over 300
suicides between 1986 and 2009, cite parenting statistics when discussing suicide on their website.
Sixty five percent aboriginal children living on a reserve live with two parents. This compares with
only 50% in census metropolitan areas. In contrast, almost 83% of non-aboriginal children lived
with two parents. Conversely, twice the proportion of aboriginal children lived with a lone parent in
2001 as did non-aboriginal children. On reserves, 32% of aboriginal children lived with a lone
parent. This percentage jumped to 46% for those in the census metropolitan areas. Only 17% of
non-aboriginal children lived with a lone parent. (www.nandecade.ca/article/aboriginal-suicide-
statistics-71.asp)
The lack of parenting skills, support to lone family parents, and limited funds provided by
band or welfare agencies, does not provide a solid foundation for First Nations, Métis and Inuit
children. Many young mothers try their best, but the obstacles they confront are enormous.
Education and Employment
Education and income are directly associated with how one participates and contributes to
society. A lack of education leads to decreased lack of employment opportunities for many
Canadians, especially First Nations, Métis and Inuit. The lack of properly supported and sustained
education facilities on reserves and in remote communities fail to provide aboriginal youth with solid

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long term educational development with many aboriginal youth dropping out of high school before
graduating.
According to a December 2005 report by the Canadian Council on Learning, aboriginal youth
in urban communities remain significantly less likely to complete high school than non-aboriginal
youth and aboriginal males fell further behind their aboriginal female counterparts in terms of high
school completion between 1981 and 2001. In 1981, aboriginal attendance rates ranged from a low
of 30.6% in Edmonton to a high of 51.3% in Ottawa- Hull. In 2001, the low end of the range had
moved up to 47.9% in Toronto and the high end was at 66.4% in Sudbury (CCL 2005).
On-reserve, the proportion of Registered Indians that graduated from high school by age 20 is
lower than the equivalent proportion of other Canadians, 36.0% vs. 84.6% (1999-2003 Statistics
Canada).
This may relate to the employment rate for Registered Indians on-reserve which is lower than
the general Canadian rate, 37.4% vs. 61.7% (1999-2003 Statistics Canada). Considering there are
few job opportunities on reserves, this number reflects the lack of opportunity for gainful
employment and participation in economic opportunities for aboriginal youth.
In a recently completed Métis Nation Saskatchewan/University of Saskatchewan Community
Based Evidence Informed Participatory Survey, May 2010, 36.7 % of Métis in Saskatchewan
indicated they have not finished high school. However, Métis rates of employment are higher than
First Nations with 62.1% (796/1282) between the ages of 18-65 employed, this compared to 69%
for Saskatchewan average (MNS/UofS Survey 2010). This may be due to the assimilation of Métis
into urban centres which has occurred historically compared to First Nations and Inuit living on
treaty lands and reserves only to move back and forth to the city later on in life. Over 69% of the

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approximately 295,000 Métis in Canada live in cities. However, in Northern and remote
communities where Métis preside employment is much lower.
Income
Studying Canadian rates of income, there is a large gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal
Canadians. For Registered Indians on reserve, the median annual income is almost half that of the
general Canadian population reported at $10,631 vs. $22,274 (1999-2003 Statistics Canada).
According to the MNS/U of S Survey, May 2010, 61 .7% (744/1205) of Métis fall below the
median income for Saskatchewan, and 44.90% (541/1205) fall below $20,000-$29,999 which is the
average Saskatchewan income. The median income for Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan Bureau of
Statistics, May, 2008) was reported to be $35,948 and the average income in 2006 as $28,872.
Mental Illness
In 2000-2001, approximately 13.2 percent of the aboriginal population living off-reserve had
experienced a major depressive episode in the past year. This is 1.8 times higher than the non-
aboriginal population (Statistics Canada 2002).
As much as these statistics provide insight into living conditions and health indicators of First
Nations, Métis and Inuit as aboriginal Canadians, they also provide an incomplete picture. There are
various studies with numerous results based on untested variables such as self indentifying as First
Nations, Métis or Inuit even though all three distinct groups live under three different cultural,
historical and geographical sets of differences. There have been attempts to differentiate between
on-reserve and off-reserve First Nations, but this does not take into account many First Nations

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who move from one community to another, to the city and back to reserves several times over the
course of their lives.
Directions in Aboriginal Youth Suicide in Canada
Emile Durkheim
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) was a French sociologist who focused on the ways in which
changes in economic and social structures interfered with those institutions and identities that serve
to weave together or regulate the social order, and so maintain a sense of collective morale and
shared meaning in life. (www.bolenderinitiatives.com/sociology/emile-durkheim-1858-1917)
Durkheim defined suicide as "all cases of death resulting directly or indirectly from a positive
or negative act of the victim himself, which he knows will produce this result." Durkheim believed
that social forces would affect the overall suicide rate. These forces became his independent
variables. (cuip.uchicago.edu/~ldernbach/msw/xsdurkhm.pdf)
Michael Chandler and Christopher Lalonde
As a Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia, Michael Chandler is
probably one the most prominent Canadian researchers in the area of aboriginal youth suicide. He
has collaborated with Christopher Lalonde from the University of Victoria on numerous studies.
Their early works were greatly influenced by Durkeim and European psychology elaborating on
identity, self-identity and later cultural continuity and how it relates to aboriginal youth suicide.
By comparing 196 First Nation bands in British Columbia, using age, gender, date and band
association, Chandler and Lalonde deducted that those communities who had indentified increased

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“protective factors” had lower incidences of suicide. These factors are: land claims, self-
government, fire protective services, education services, health services and cultural facilities
(Chandler and Lalonde 1998). The greater the protective factors, the greater existence of “cultural
continuity” and “self continuity” for First Nations youth as these two are strongly linked. Failure in
self-continuity is strongly associated with suicide risk.
As much as Chandler and Lalonde have tried to make progress in understanding social and
health indicators that affect rates of suicide among aboriginal youth, the lack of understanding of
First Nations, Métis and Inuit traditions, culture and place in Canadian history, makes
communicating their research knowledge with success and meaning to aboriginal communities
difficult. Their research success pales greatly in contrast to the lack of acceptance of the findings by
aboriginal communities who must feel alienated from the research not able to place themselves in
European frameworks of study which Chandler continues to premise all his research methods on.
Need for Change in Direction in Aboriginal Health Research
Depending on why research is conducted, aboriginal youth suicide cannot be treated
exclusively as an academic endeavour or a government initiative. Lives are literally at stake and a
greater methodology that provides direct engagement and action based outcomes must be at the
forefront of ethics and process when scholars and others embark on tackling this extremely sensitive
and complicated issue. Research priorities need to be set on the basis of health status and health
determinants of the aboriginal population (Young, 2003).
First Nations, Métis and Inuit are best to confront their own existence and must be given the
chance to lead if change in community development is to occur allowing for healthy leadership and

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participation of all citizens, especially youth. The increasing amount of First Nations, Métis and Inuit
graduating from universities is a positive first step in true community development and the women
tend to be leading the way going to school, graduating and making more money than non-aboriginal
graduates in some cases as reported recently by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Graduates in health, social development and nursing are best to lead research and program
development. The challenge today is to highlight indigenous epistemology and means of knowledge
validation in policy-based research and in policy implementation and practice (Kenny, 2004).
There must be meaningful commitment by aboriginal and non aboriginal government towards
understanding the extent of aboriginal youth suicide and why it occurs. Limited data exist regarding
the various contexts and life experience of aboriginal youth thought to place them at risk for
attempted or completed suicide (MacNeal, 2008). Funding a national registry which imposes a
collaborative mechanism that monitors suicide and especially aboriginal suicide, would bring
together many who work to try to address the issue. Governments need facts and evidence before
they can justify funding programs that address issues that at times are misunderstood and
overwhelming for the general public to acknowledge and support. Removing politics from
aboriginal youth suicide would allow for a professional approach to properly start addressing it. By
starting with the evidence, focus becomes more knowledge based, less political and more honest
lending to greater success in effectively overcoming the destructive statistics that are increasing and
scattered throughout the country.
Governments, community leaders and community members must be open to real change.
They must show respect towards each other and for themselves if a healthy outcome is to be
expected. The history of why aboriginal youth feel despair and the inability of many communities to
affectively reverse this trend must be taken into account. To explore the origins of health for

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aboriginal peoples, the unique context includes the socio-political factors, a holistic perspective of
health with health optimization at each stage of the life course, from preconception to death
(Reading, 2009). A broad determinants of health perspective will also ground the discussion of risk
factors. That is biological, social, economic, environmental, and political factors that affect one’s
health and the health of communities, populations, and generations will all be included. This will
enable a broad discussion of the complex risk factor environment for aboriginal populations in
Canada (Senate of Canada, 2009).
A life course epidemiology approach embraces the complexity of disease risk and
acknowledges the long-term effects of physical, social, psychological, and behaviour pathways,
operating across an individual’s life, a community’s generation, and a population’s development, on
health and well-being (Estey, Kmetic and Reading, 2007).
Given the complex situation faced by many aboriginal communities, there must be
understanding of the origins of suicide and its prevention in ways that bring together both
psychological and social explanations (Kirmayer, 2007). The following chart provides a model on
the origins of aboriginal suicide. It clearly includes the history of relationships between aboriginal
and non aboriginals which have contributed to the lack of education, lack of opportunity, mistrust,
hopelessness and other negative conditions as a result of colonization, oppression and disrespect
that must change before aboriginal youth suicide rates are reduced. Children learn by example and
if that example is negative, negative behavoir will persist and prevail.

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An Integrated Model of the Origins of Suicide (Kirmayer, AFN 2007)
Dr. Laurence Kirmayer of McGill Univeristy, as a co-director of the National Newtork for
Aborignal Mental Health Research and Training, provides a clear understanding of indicators that
lead to suicide incorporating a perspective that has lacked in the past, an aborignal perspective. It
serves as evidence where indicators are brought together to paint a clear picture of what First
Nations, Metis and Inuit have been confronted with for many years. As tragic as it appears, at least
it appears clearly for all to see.

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Canadian and Saskatchewan Government Research and Policy Response to
Aboriginal Health and Youth Suicide
Very little is said from government on the increasing and alarming statistics on aboriginal
youth suicide. It is primarily a devastating condition in remote communities across Canada where
communities are left to deal with the effects on their own. Many attempts over the years to improve
the plight of Canadian Fist Nations, Métis and Inuit have been mostly political in nature and political
in the countless failures. To say the least, it has been difficult for Canada to properly address
conditions which today lead to unmitigated numbers of youth taking their lives in response to
inability of all before them to create opportunity to participate in Canadian society and feel a part of
something good and decent.
Throughout the years there have been countless attempts to document the experiences of
Canadian First Nations, Métis and Inuit. In 1969 The White Paper was released after extensive
consultations with aboriginal groups across Canada. In the end, the document primarily ignored
what First Nations, Métis and Inuit told the commission and created an unhealthy relationship as
expectations were dashed and mistrust set in. In 1991, the Government of Canada launched the
most extensive study and consideration of issues affecting aboriginal people. For five years, the
Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) engaged, analyzed and carefully considered a
balanced strategy to move forward (AFN 2009).
In 2005, then Prime Minister Paul Martin embarked on an ambitious goal to address
economic and social inequity between aboriginal and non aboriginal Canadians. The Kelowna
Accord attempted to deal with social determinants of health and inequity pledging 5 billion dollars

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to aboriginal communities, but was not signed into legislation before defeat of the Liberal minority
government who introduced the policy.
None of these commissions and initiatives specifically addresses suicide possibly because it
was not prevalent earlier in Canadian history and if it was, it was unknown to policy makers and
elected officials. Possibly the numbers did not demand as much attention as other issues such as
housing, safe water, education, employment and Chronic Diseases. The focus and commitment
from leaders across Canada to address aboriginal youth suicide is not there and lends greatly to why
aboriginal youth suicide continues. Communities and kids need commitment and capacity on this
one issue alone if anything is going to change.
There are currently initiatives in place to better understand aboriginal youth suicide, such as
Health Canada’s, Acting On What We Know: Preventing Youth Suicide in First Nations, but even Health
Canada acknowledges “there is a gap in knowledge about what actually works in the area of suicide
prevention. With regard to First Nations populations, we lack rigorous evaluations of programs and
interventions as well as basic epidemiological information on risk and protective factors at the
individual and community levels” (Health Canada 2009).
Since 2007, Health Canada and the First Nations Inuit Health Branch have embarked on a
five year National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy (NAYSPS), by providing 65 million
dollars to First Nations communities throughout Canada. In 2009, the Federation of Saskatchewan
Indian Nations, which represents 74 First Nations Bands throughout the province, engaged only six
Tribal Councils representing 30 bands who participated in a survey based questionnaire regarding
NAYSPS, its effectiveness and suggestions for improvement. Most noticed increased awareness but
suggested the need for community based initiatives that are accountable to their community and

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private and public funding sources (FSIN NAYSPS 2009). Little results are evident as aboriginal
youth suicide increases in Saskatchewan.
The Government of Saskatchewan through the Northern Human Services Partnership has
produced six drafts of a framework to address the high rates of suicide in Northern Saskatchewan,
A Suicide Prevention Framework for Northern Saskatchewan is predominately a literature review based on
little best practices and other suicide prevention strategies from across Canada. There has been little
direct engagement and research with First Nations and Métis communities which contrasts with The
Senate of Canada, Standing Committee on Population Health, 2009, which recommends that
aboriginal people – First Nations, Inuit and Métis – be involved in the design, development and
delivery of federal programs and services that address health determinants in their respective
communities (Senate of Canada 2009). Provincial or federal, youth suicide knows no jurisdictions or
boundaries.
Suicide Strategies: Crisis Management
First Nations (AFN), Métis (MNC) and Inuit (ITK) Response
Due to lack of long term commitment on a national level which collaborates with aboriginal
and non-aboriginal governance, provincial counterparts and community leaders, communities are
left in crisis management mode when dealing with the devastating effects of increasing aboriginal
youth suicide.
In Fred Kelly’s, Traditional and Contemporary Approach to Youth Suicide Intervention,
Assembly of First Nations (AFN 2007), Kelly adds to Chandler’s list of protective factors but lists
contributing factors included in additional categories such as individual, family, peers, school,
community and culture. The document incorporates research which identifies experiences of

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aboriginal communities in attempts to create strategies to address the social determinants but is
incomplete without forceful and effective recommendations.
The National Aboriginal Health Organization, in its document, Understanding Health
Indicators, (NAHO 2007) addresses social determinants but does not provide strategies that are
tested and which work in prevention of aboriginal youth suicide.
The Assembly of First Nations, at the AFN National Policy and Planning Forum in
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan March 24-26, 2010 made no mention specific to policy or programming
specific to youth suicide.
Inuit Tapiriit Kanata (ITK), provides for a Suicide Prevention Coordinator to work with The
National Inuit Youth Council (NIYC), along with other staff which work on suicide prevention and
mental wellness but one must ask what one or two people can accomplish. However, the holistic,
strength-based Inuit approach to suicide prevention strongly influenced the draft Alianait Action
Plan for Inuit mental wellness (www.itk.ca/Inuit-Approaches-to-Suicide-Prevention).
The Métis National Council, which purportedly represents Métis across Canada, has no
strategy on youth suicide although money was allocated to the organization under NAPSYS funding.
Métis Nation Saskatchewan has just received funding to review strategies and best practices in
other communities to create a Northern Saskatchewan Métis Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy but
lacks experience, involvement in health care and collaboration with health authorities to guarantee
success. There has been community involvement in youth suicide through a forum hosted in
Northern Saskatchewan by the Northern Health Strategy (NHS), but the NHS lacks critical funding
to ensure community representation when strategies and programs are developed.

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There are programs such as Honouring Life, River of Life, ASSIST and gatekeeper strategies
but communities have no real proof that anything works. Most believe they can develop programs
on their own but without collaborative support, knowledge, evidence, sustained funding and shared
responsibility, these programs are in vain.
Aboriginal Youth Suicide: Gaps and Strengths in Research towards Policy
Earlier research does not incorporate an aboriginal perspective of suicide or those social and
health determinants that may increase incidence of suicide in aboriginal communities. This omits
the entire aboriginal community in any action forward- community based - evidence informed
research. Over the years, as research has been conducted on the subject, cases of suicide have only
increased in most communities. Government programming, at the behest of elections, budget cuts
and funding regulations have created disparate, sporadic strategies lacking in evidence, evaluation
and accountability. Lack of evidence and epidemiology suppresses much needed research in
surveillance and intervention analysis. However, there is increasing research by aboriginal
organizations such as Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and Inuit Tapiriit Kanata (ITK), which
should directly involve leaders and aboriginal health providers who are directed to report to regional
and local First Nations and Inuit communities in Canada.
Potential is great in increasing research towards population health models, life course
approaches including social determinants by partnering aboriginal organizations with others such as
the Canadian Institute for Health Research and NAHO.

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Why a Population Health Model?
As with public health programs, surveillance, and health statistics, public health research also
may be informed and guided by models of population health. The use of models of population
health can help to focus on the importance of considering the full range of influences on a
populations’ health (Freidman and Starfield, 2003).
Aboriginal youth suicide deserves utmost of focus that incorporates research methodology,
health care modelling, traditional knowledge, and consideration of partners that must be committed
and able to work towards the common goal of alleviating the statistics and the pain of suicide
reinstating hope to young people in aboriginal communities.
Public Health/Population Health Services in Saskatchewan outlines several key elements of a
Population Health Model. They are: addressing determinants of health, focus on the health of
populations, invest upstream, base decisions on evidence, apply multiple strategies to act on the
determinants of health, collaborate across levels and sectors, employ mechanisms to engage citizens,
and increase accountability for health outcomes (Saskatchewan Health 2004). These elements are
essential in addressing aboriginal youth suicide as they cover the spectrum of health analysis and
policy development towards programming in areas of education and prevention allowing for
accountability as a measured result. Although it suggests to employ mechanisms to engage citizens,
citizens must lead and be engaged at the onset of any development of a population health model,
research into its development and lastly accountability to the communities where rates of Aboriginal
youth suicide prove despair and dysfunction in all elements of government policy and programming.

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Two Worlds: Two Population Health Models
The following two population health frameworks show how aboriginal and non aboriginals
approach health policy and programming. The first western model, (Fig 3) seeks to improve health
at the top by acting on the health determinants (Health Canada 1999). The second First Nations
Regional Longitudinal Health Survey Cultural Framework (Fig 4) places people at the centre of the
circle and emphasizes the need for balance (NAHO 2006). There must be balance between the two
in order to bring balance to those communities who need help.
Figure 3 (NAHO 2007) Figure 4 (NAHO 2007)

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Conclusion
There is no collaborative approach to study and provide surveillance of aboriginal youth
suicide which brings together aboriginal and non aboriginal governments, aboriginal and non
aboriginal health researches and health service providers.
A population health model developed between aboriginal organizations, academic institutions
and partners, both provincially and federally, is needed. It may not affect suicide rates immediately,
but there must be some benefit to adequately addressing aboriginal youth suicide in a focused,
respectful, educated and professional manner that brings communities together with government,
health authorities with those who study suicide and lend research methodology to program
development and surveillance. This focus must bring together aboriginal scholars, leaders, and
community members with their non aboriginal counterparts incorporating the concept of aboriginal
modernity, where scholars and policy makers relinquish the labels of colonizers and victims yet
emphasize the importance of considering the life worlds and lived experiences of aboriginal peoples,
traditional and modern (Kenny 2007).
At present, Canada has no comprehensive national Suicide Prevention Strategy. An
Aboriginal Youth Suicide Population Health Model would assist in creating a universal approach
with knowledge transfer from aboriginal teachings, which we can all learn from.
An Aboriginal Youth Suicide Population Health Model is needed to depoliticize aboriginal
youth suicide. It should strive to create a national registry of suicide allowing for an epidemiological
life course approach towards universal, collaborative prevention strategies that can be modified
across multiple jurisdictions and a central agency for surveillance and monitoring to ensure direction
in research and policy. It must be a permanent mechanism with a realistic expedient time frame for

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operation and must be complemented by a social media campaign that truly engages communities
throughout Canada who do not deserve the pain, guilt and despair associated with youth suicide.

22
Bibliography
Chandler M, Lalonde C. Cultural Continuity as a Hedge Against Suicide in Canada’s First Nations.
Transcultural Psychiatry. 1998.
Canadian Council on Learning. The State of Aboriginal Learning in Canada. CCL Website. 2009
Estey E, Kmetic A, Reading J. Innovative Approaches in Public Health Research. Canadian Journal
of Public Health. Dec 2007. 98( 6), p 444-446
Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations. The National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention
Strategy (NAYSPS). A Work in Progress. Health and Social Development Department. June,
2009.
Friedman D, Starfield B. Models of Population Health: Their Value for US Public Health Practice,
Policy, and Research. American Journal of Public Health. 2003 March; 93(3), p 366-369.
Health Canada. Guide to National Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy. 2008.
Kelly F. Traditional and Contemporary Approaches to Youth Suicide Prevention. National Youth
Council. Assembly of First Nations. March 2007.
Kenny, Carolyn. A Holistic Framework for Aboriginal Policy Research. Status of Women Canada’s
Policy Research. October 2004, p 3.
Kirmayer L. Suicide Among Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. 2007. p
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MacNeil M. An Epidemiologic Study of Aboriginal Adolescent Risk in Canadian: The Meaning of
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National Aboriginal Health Organization. Understanding Health Indicators. NAHO. April 2007.
Reading J. A Life Course Approach to the Social Determinants of Health for Aboriginal Peoples’.
Senate of Canada Sub-Committee on Population Health. March 2009.
Saskatchewan Government. Northern Human Services Partnership – DRAFT - A Suicide
Prevention Framework for Northern Saskatchewan. July 27, 2009.
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Senate of Canada. Life Course Epidemiology - The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science
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Statistics Canada. The Health of the Off-Reserve Aboriginal Population. (2002). Catalogue 82-003.
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