Abstract
American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) experience devastatingly high rates of suicide yet remain understudied and underserved regarding suicide prevention and intervention efforts. This chapter provides an overview of suicide among AI/AN populations, including AI/AN youth who experience some of the greatest risks and highest rates of death by suicide. We begin by reviewing what is known about suicide among AI/ANs, including defining and contextualizing AI/AN identities and cultures, providing historical and contemporary rates of suicide among AI/ANs, and discussing risk and protective factors for suicide among AI/ANs through social determinants of health perspective, with an emphasis on the Social Ecological Model for Suicidal Behavior. We then provide an overview of other theoretical models and frameworks, including general, culturally based, and Indigenous frameworks, that have been applied to the study of AI/AN suicide. Next, we highlight the existing evidence-based suicide intervention and prevention efforts that were either developed with, or adapted for, AI/ANs. Additionally, we provide evidence of AI/AN resilience and strengths-based approaches. We conclude this chapter with a call for areas of future research, clinical utility for individual-level and public health approaches, and trainings for preventing suicide among AI/AN peoples.
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Cole, A.B., Armstrong, C.M., Rhoades-Kerswill, S., Lopez, S.V., Elm, J. (2021). Suicide Among American Indian/Alaska Native Populations. In: Miranda, R., Jeglic, E.L. (eds) Handbook of Youth Suicide Prevention. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82465-5_13
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