Manitoba's had a suicide rate in 2012 - the last year for which figures are readily available - of 13.29 deaths per 100,000, placing us well above the Canadian average of 11.1. Suicide is the third most common cause of death reported to Manitoba chief medical examiner Dr. Thambirajah Balachandra's office. North of the 53rd parallel, the suicide picture painted for Northern Manitoba, particularly among aboriginal youth on isolated First Nations reserves, is bleak indeed.
Bleak, but not hopeless.
The HOPE North Suicide Prevention Committee is busily preparing for this year's fifth annual HOPE Forum from April 29 to May 1 at the Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre. The HOPE Forum is an annual event whose aim is to encourage life promotion and raise awareness about suicide. By the time they reach Grade 5, the committee says, "most children understand what suicide is and a small percent have had suicidal thoughts or minor attempts. The North has the highest suicide rates overall; significantly higher than the Manitoba average. Raising awareness about suicide is vital and it is the hope of the committee that the forum will increase awareness and evoke some open and honest conversations."
Fourteen years ago, Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs summarized the situation in way that still bears reading for its currency: "Suicide rates differ between First Nations and non-First Nations populations more than any other cause of death. The differences are most extreme in the younger age groups, and decline sharply in older age groups. By age 60+ there is no significant difference. However, as we have noted, there are few First Nations people in this older age group.
"Suicide is endemic among First Nations youth, especially males. By contrast, non-aboriginal youth are no more likely to commit suicide than any other age group.
"Nationally in 1989-93, the death rate by suicide for male youth aged 15-24 was 126 per 100,000 annually, a rate more than five times the national rate for all males in this age group. The comparable rate for First Nations females was 35/100,000, far less than among First Nations men, but over seven times the national rate for females of this age.
"A special report on suicide produced for the 1996 Canadian Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) linked youth suicide, mental illness, and drug and alcohol abuse to cultural alienation or stress. This is caused by: loss of identity, loss of control over living conditions, restricted economic opportunity, suppression of beliefs and spirituality, weakening of social institutions, displacement of political institutions, pervasive breakdown of cultural values and diminished esteem, discrimination and institutional racism and their internalized effects, and voluntary or involuntary adoption of elements of an external culture and loss of identity.
"Since 1980, First Nations suicide rates have increased by 45 per cent among children aged 14 and under, an age group for whom suicide is virtually unrecorded among non-aboriginal Canadians.
"Hangings remain the most commonly reported suicide method for ages 15-24 and 25-44, though firearms are increasingly used for ages 15-24, and both firearms and drug overdoses for ages 25-44. Firearms are more frequently used by males, and drug overdoses by females.
"Among all First Nations suicides reported in Manitoba from 1989-93, 58 per cent were by hanging, 29 per cent by firearms, eight per cent by drug overdose, and 6 per cent by other means."
The HOPE North Suicide Prevention Committee is co-ordinated through the Northern Regional Health Authority (NRHA) and historically has had representation from the School District of Mystery Lake, Addictions Foundation of Manitoba's Northern Region Eaglewood Addictions Centre; Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) Thompson; Thompson Boys & Girls Club; Frontier School Division; LABAN Fitness & Martial Arts Centre; MacDonald Youth Services; Marymound/Futures; Thompson Neighborhood Renewal Corporation (TNRC); McDonalds Restaurant; Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc. (MKO); Ma-Mow-We-Tak Friendship Centre, Keewatin Tribal Council (KTC), Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation Family and Community Wellness Centre and the RCMP.
The HOPE Forum is a free event and promises to provide something for everyone (professionals, kids, parents etc.). Lunch will be provided both days and additional training is provided free of charge for those interested. The conference will begin on April 29 with optional pre-conference SafeTALK training. The training will take place from 8:30 a.m. until noon and 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is free of charge for those registered for the conference. SafeTALK helps forum participants to learn the warning signs indicating someone is at risk for suicide, and recognizing those, be better able help to "communicate and access help," the committee said in an April 14 press release.
The conference will feature motivational speaker and dancer Buffy Handel, a professional dancer and choreographer, as well as the founder of the Aboriginal School of Dance in Winnipeg. Handel has been a motivational speaker since 2003. She will be speaking on how to be inspired in spirit. Handel was raised mainly on a trap line near Island Lake in a log cabin her parents built near St. Theresa Point First Nation with no running water or electricity. She moved to Winnipeg when she was 14 for educational reasons. Today, she still lives in Winnipeg with five children at home and trains in Brazilian martial arts.
The forum also features a return visit from Kevin Lamoureux, an award-winning instructor at the University of Winnipeg, who is also is a well known public speaker, writer and co-host of the podcast The Frank and Kevin Show: In Colour. He will be speaking on how to honour the strength, spirit and resilience of youth and how to reclaim hope. Lamoureux was here last May to facilitate discussion about the "circle of courage" principles and also help participants build "suicide prevention action plans" to be implemented in their communities.
For more information about HOPE Forum, you can contact Liz Lychuk, child and adolescent mental health programs manager and suicide prevention co-ordinator for the NRHA by telephone at (204) 778-6513 ext. 225 or by e-mail at: elychuk@BRHA.mb.ca
Or contact Jennifer Whalen, NRHA mental health promotion co-ordinator by telephone at (204) 778-1589 or by e-mail at: JWhalen@BRHA.mb.ca
If you would like to register for the conference please contact Tanya North at the NRHA at (204) 778-6513.
