Promising Areas of Research Focused on the Prevention of American Indian and Alaska Native Suicide

Tensions and Possibilities for Advancing AI/AN Suicide Research

As part of the activities of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) Task Force, a small multidisciplinary group of AI/AN suicide research experts came together for two-days to discuss pressing issues related to this subfield of suicidology. The roundtable discussion will summarize insights generated at this meeting, and provide the opportunity for continuing the conversation aimed at spurring innovation in the field.

Suicide is a health disparity for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities, and these communities have unique patterns of suicide and self injury when compared to US all groups. Suicide  disproportionately affects Native young people. AI/AN suicide research can offer insights with relevance to other marginalized groups.

Outcomes from the expert meeting include identification of key ideas and strategies that can push the field of AI/AN suicide prevention into new areas. These innovations focus on:

(1)  Importance of CBPR to identify local understanding of etiology, mechanisms of change and targeted outcomes of interventions. This approach will generate new knowledge to inform intervention, regardless if primary intervention is immediately successful,

(2) Community-level patterns of risk, protection, help-seeking and care giving so that interventions can most effectively target those at highest risk and identify prevailing support systems with the most potential to influence and therefore prevent suicidal behavior,

(3) Enlarging the set of ideas and models to explore multi-level processes, and

(4) Elaborate constructs related to wellbeing and resilience.

The panel, comprised of suicide prevention researchers who have been working collaboratively with tribal communities, will begin by discussing their unique understanding of the problem of AI/AN suicide, describing particular challenges they have encountered, and outlining promising areas of research. The open format will engage panelists and audience members in discussions to generate critical insights into the problem of AI/AN suicide, identify considerations for undertaking collaborative research in tribal communities, and spark ideas for advancing the field.