Author Description

DSM-IV - Fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association; the standard psychiatric diagnostic system in use in Canada and the United States. [...] In fact, suicide is only one index of the health and well-being of a population, and it is important to view suicide in the larger context of psychological and social health, and well-being. [...] From the perspective of prevention, the contributors to suicide can be thought of in terms of risk factors that increase the likelihood of suicidal behaviour, and protective factors that reduce it. [...] The individual factors that affect suicide in Aboriginal people are no different than those found in other populations and communities, but the prevalence and interrelationships among these factors differ for Aboriginal communities due to their history of colonization, and subsequent interactions with the social and political institutions of Canadian society. [...] Governmental policies of forced assimilation enacted through the residential school system and the child welfare system resulted in profound disruption in the transmission of culture and the maintenance of healthy communities.