Indigenous Knowledge Approach to Successful Psychotherapies with Aboriginal Suicide Attempters
Introduction: Suicide is disproportionately common among Aboriginal people in Canada. Methods: Life stories were collected from 54 Aboriginal suicide attempters in northern Saskatchewan. Constant comparison techniques and modified grounded theory identified common themes expressed. Results: Three co...
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crsagepubl:10.1177/0706743716659247 2023-05-15T16:16:53+02:00 Indigenous Knowledge Approach to Successful Psychotherapies with Aboriginal Suicide Attempters Mehl-Madrona, Lewis 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0706743716659247 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0706743716659247 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0706743716659247 en eng SAGE Publications http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry volume 61, issue 11, page 696-699 ISSN 0706-7437 1497-0015 Psychiatry and Mental health journal-article 2016 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743716659247 2022-08-12T11:29:27Z Introduction: Suicide is disproportionately common among Aboriginal people in Canada. Methods: Life stories were collected from 54 Aboriginal suicide attempters in northern Saskatchewan. Constant comparison techniques and modified grounded theory identified common themes expressed. Results: Three common plots/themes preceded suicide attempts: 1) relationship breakup, usually sudden, unanticipated, involving a third person; 2) being publicly humiliated by another person(s), accompanied by high levels of shame; and 3) high levels of unremitting, chronic life stress (including poverty) with relative isolation. We found 5 common purposes for suicide attempts: 1) to “show” someone how badly they had hurt the attempter, 2) to stop the pain, 3) to save face in a difficult social situation, 4) to get revenge, and 5) don’t know/don’t remember/made sense at the time, all stated by people who were under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time of their suicide attempt. We found 5 common beliefs about death: 1) you just cease to exist, and everything just disappears; 2) you go into the spirit world and can see and hear everything that is happening in this world; 3) you go to heaven or hell; 4) you go to a better place; and 5) don’t know/didn’t think about it. Discussion: The idea of personal and cultural continuity is essential to understanding suicide among First Nations youth. Interventions targeted to the individual’s beliefs about death, purpose for suicide, and consistent with the life story (plot) in which they find themselves may be more successful than one-size-fits-all programs developed outside of aboriginal communities. Article in Journal/Newspaper First Nations SAGE Publications (via Crossref) Canada The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 61 11 696 699 |
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Open Polar |
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SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
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crsagepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Psychiatry and Mental health |
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Psychiatry and Mental health Mehl-Madrona, Lewis Indigenous Knowledge Approach to Successful Psychotherapies with Aboriginal Suicide Attempters |
topic_facet |
Psychiatry and Mental health |
description |
Introduction: Suicide is disproportionately common among Aboriginal people in Canada. Methods: Life stories were collected from 54 Aboriginal suicide attempters in northern Saskatchewan. Constant comparison techniques and modified grounded theory identified common themes expressed. Results: Three common plots/themes preceded suicide attempts: 1) relationship breakup, usually sudden, unanticipated, involving a third person; 2) being publicly humiliated by another person(s), accompanied by high levels of shame; and 3) high levels of unremitting, chronic life stress (including poverty) with relative isolation. We found 5 common purposes for suicide attempts: 1) to “show” someone how badly they had hurt the attempter, 2) to stop the pain, 3) to save face in a difficult social situation, 4) to get revenge, and 5) don’t know/don’t remember/made sense at the time, all stated by people who were under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs at the time of their suicide attempt. We found 5 common beliefs about death: 1) you just cease to exist, and everything just disappears; 2) you go into the spirit world and can see and hear everything that is happening in this world; 3) you go to heaven or hell; 4) you go to a better place; and 5) don’t know/didn’t think about it. Discussion: The idea of personal and cultural continuity is essential to understanding suicide among First Nations youth. Interventions targeted to the individual’s beliefs about death, purpose for suicide, and consistent with the life story (plot) in which they find themselves may be more successful than one-size-fits-all programs developed outside of aboriginal communities. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Mehl-Madrona, Lewis |
author_facet |
Mehl-Madrona, Lewis |
author_sort |
Mehl-Madrona, Lewis |
title |
Indigenous Knowledge Approach to Successful Psychotherapies with Aboriginal Suicide Attempters |
title_short |
Indigenous Knowledge Approach to Successful Psychotherapies with Aboriginal Suicide Attempters |
title_full |
Indigenous Knowledge Approach to Successful Psychotherapies with Aboriginal Suicide Attempters |
title_fullStr |
Indigenous Knowledge Approach to Successful Psychotherapies with Aboriginal Suicide Attempters |
title_full_unstemmed |
Indigenous Knowledge Approach to Successful Psychotherapies with Aboriginal Suicide Attempters |
title_sort |
indigenous knowledge approach to successful psychotherapies with aboriginal suicide attempters |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0706743716659247 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0706743716659247 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0706743716659247 |
geographic |
Canada |
geographic_facet |
Canada |
genre |
First Nations |
genre_facet |
First Nations |
op_source |
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry volume 61, issue 11, page 696-699 ISSN 0706-7437 1497-0015 |
op_rights |
http://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0706743716659247 |
container_title |
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry |
container_volume |
61 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
696 |
op_container_end_page |
699 |
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1766002728788557824 |