Toward an understanding of suicide in First-Nation Canadians.
Despite having a suicide rate that is consistently higher than the national Canadian average, our understanding of suicide within First-Nation Canadians is limited. Furthermore, our historical research endeavors in this area have tended to focus on clarifying characteristic symptoms, symptom clusters, and risk factors; establishing causal links; and identifying clinical phenomena associated with the presence of increased risk and have tended to use quantitative methods. The "voice" of the suicidal First-Nation person is largely "silent" within this literature and, as a result, any understanding we have of this issue is unbalanced and incomplete. Accordingly, this paper makes the case for adding a complementary (or shifting the existing) research emphasis for studying suicide within First-Nation Canadian communities. It suggests a complimentary strategic research activity that is more concerned with qualitative methods: A model that augments the current understanding of the "developmental-existential" model of suicide by accessing and articulating the "voices" of the First-Nation people themselves.
Cutcliffe
John R
JR
University of Northern British Columbia, Canada. dr.johnr@shaw.ca
D002170:Canada; D002423:Cause of Death; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D012106:Research; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States