We R Native launched the #weneedyouhere campaign to prevent youth suicide. Photo from We R Native / Facebook
Harold Monteau, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribe, calls on tribes to work together to come up with solutions to the suicide crisis:
The epidemic of Suicide in Indian communities and in the Native American off-reservation population has become a #1 priority issue in Indian Country, right alongside Alcohol and Drug Abuse. The two just might be related, do you think? Of course, I’m being facetious, but sometimes stating the obvious is necessary. (I use the words Indian Country as meaning both our Indigenous Homelands and the Indian Population/Communities everywhere in the U.S. and Canada whether on Indian lands or not). What we need now in Indian Country and our communities, both rural and urban, are strategies. What works in one place, may not work in another. National Strategies and written plans are nice at identifying the problems but actual successful solutions are in the communities and will come from our communities. We have to combine local strategies with money and man-power sources from wherever available. I’m not an expert on Suicide Prevention, but I do know what I have learned in a half century or so of observation.Get the Story:
Harold Monteau: Suicide-Prevention Tools: Already in the Indian Community (Indian Country Today 6/4)
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