Community focuses on suicide prevention

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Since 1975, 17 members of Little Pine First Nation have taken their own lives. That's a high number for a community of only 1,400, says Little Pine's suicide prevention activist Susie Starr. All of those who have committed suicide have been women. A number of other community members have attempted suicide recently, all of them women as well.

One of the main reasons for these suicides and attempted suicides has been relationship breakdowns, Starr said. Some of the signs that someone is considering suicide are depression, having trouble in school or if someone suddenly begins to give away their belongings.

"The most important thing that I can tell them is to tell somebody and not to be silent," said Starr. "They need to tell somebody they trust, whether it's a family member, best friend, grandparents, someone in the health clinic, teacher or anybody, just as long as they tell somebody."

In an attempt to deal with the problem of suicides in the community, Little Pine chief and council declared May 23 to 26 as Little Pine Suicide Awareness Week. Activities throughout the week were organized by Starr, along with band councillor Rachael Semaganis and school guidance counsellor Christine Thomas.

Starr said she is on board 100 per cent with the community's efforts to increase awareness about suicide. Since the death of her own daughter, Tala, who took her own life on Oct. 4, 2003, Starr has been doing all that she can to create awareness about suicide prevention and to let young girls know that there is information and services available to them.

"That's the most important thing to me is that they know where to turn to for help," she said.

The suicide awareness week started on May 23 with the community welcoming this year's Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Walk participants. This is the fourth year the walk has been held to raise awareness about the problem of suicide among Aboriginal youth. In past years, walkers have travelled from Nanaimo, B.C. to Ottawa. This year, the group began their walk in Sydney, N.S.on March 14 and are heading to Victoria, where they plan to arrive in time for National Aboriginal Day on June 21.

Community members joined this year's walk partcipants and walked from Chief Little Pine school to the Little Pine Elders Hall, where the young walkers gave a talk to students and community members about who they are and why they're doing the walk. (More information about the Aboriginal Youth Suicide Prevention Walk can be found online at www.yspw.org.)

Throughout the rest of the week, representatives from Battlefords Tribal Council Indian Health Services and the Battlefords Tribal Council Women's Centre came into the school and talked to the kids about coping skills and how to communicate with their parents.

While the awareness week has come to a close, attempts to raise awareness about suicide will continue, with plans to hold monthly awareness events.

The most important message Starr would like to get out is that youth shouldn't stay silent. If they are feeling depressed or suicidal they should tell somebody.

Advice and help is also available online on Web sites like www.yellowribbon.org, which also has 24-hour toll-free numbers (1-800 suicide and 1-800-273-talk) that people can call for support.

"There's help available," Starr said. "It's just a matter of asking for it."