Depression and Suicide: A Concern in Aboriginal Health

This article discusses the impact of depression and suicide on the health of aboriginals in Canada. It explores the causes, symptoms, and traditional healing practices used to address this issue.

Running head: DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
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Canada is considered to be a failure when the health of aboriginals are discussed and
taken under consideration. The health of indigenous people in Canada is certainly a big
embarrassment to the country. It is known that aboriginal people of Canada are faced with harsh
challenges on daily basis (Boyer, 2019). The unique set of challenges makes them go through
mental health issues and illnesses. Depression is one of the major disorders that comes under the
common and serious medical illness. Therefore, aboriginals are certainly more in numbers when
depression and suicide is considered in Canada. The paper will discuss depression and suicide is
a profound factor of concern in the area of aboriginal health. The paper will discuss the concept
of depression and suicide, its condition, relation to the aboriginal group, the history of the disease
along with traditional healing practices. The paper will provide description of depression and
suicide followed by epidemiology of the condition. The history of depression and suicide among
aboriginal people along with the historical events that have contributed to the development of it
followed by the traditional healing practices used in order to address the issue of depression and
suicide.
Depression and suicide
Depression is one of the major disorders that come under the common and serious
medical illness. Depression has serious negative impacts on the way a person feel, the way a
person think and the way a person act. However, depression is treatable and a person with
depression can overcome it through appropriate medical approaches (Miller & Hen, 2015).
Depression can lead to several problems including emotional and physical problems that may
decrease a person’s ability function at home as well as work. The signs of depression are:
 Lack of energy or feelings of fatigue

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 Loss of pleasure in virtually every activities
 Frequent tearfulness
 Change in sleep pattern
 Difficulty with appetite
 memory or concentration
 Unrealistic ideas and worries
 Changes in appetite along with corresponding change in weight
 Feeling of worthlessness and self-blame and no hope about future
 Thoughts of suicide (Schwartz et al., 2014)
One of the major leading causes of death in young people is suicide. The cause of suicide is
mental illness among which depression is the most common one. People feeling suicidal are
overwhelmed by painful emotions and during this time death seems to be the escape for them.
People who overcome depression leave the tendency of committing suicide (Dazzi et al., 2014).
They are also found being regretful of attempting suicide after overcoming depression. The signs
and symptoms of suicide are:
 Talking about suicide
 Withdrawing from social contact
 Mood swings such as emotionally high and deeply one day and discouraged the other day
 Increased use of alcohol or drugs
 Feeling trapped and hopeless
 Performing self-destructive things
 Developing personality changes
 Feeling anxious and agitated (Schilling et al., 2014.)

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Epidemiology of the condition
The tragic reality of First Nations and Inuit communities is suicide and depression. The
communities experience much higher suicide rates compared to the Canadian population as
whole. The rate of depression and suicides among the aboriginals are certainly a matter of
concern. They are faced with societal challenges that force them to become depressed then lead
to suicide (Ridani et al., 2015). The issues such as housing, employment and education through
the battle of racism it is not surprising that aboriginal people in Canada are more likely to
experience depression and suicide than non-aboriginals. They are faced with traumatic events in
their lifetimes including individual, collective and historical traumas (Walls, Hautala & Hurley,
2014).
Aboriginal Determinants of Health
Aboriginals are certainly more in numbers when depression and suicide is considered in
Canada. While suicide is the 14th leading cause of death for non-indigenous people in Australia,
it is ranked fifth for the indigenous people. It number should not come as a surprise, as the
struggle of aboriginals is often witnessed very commonly. The suicide is not the outcome of only
mental disorders. There are many other factors that play role. There are specific cultural,
historical, political considerations (Boksa, Joober & Kirmayer, 2015). These factors heavily
influence the increasing suicide rates of suicide among Aboriginals and Torres straits Islander
people. The suicide rate among the aboriginals includes several aspects. There are several factors
that act as determinants of health for aboriginals however the major underlying factor is racism.
Racism is acknowledged as a determinant of health for aboriginal population. Racism impacts on
aboriginals people in the way that is similar to a traumatic event with at least 30 per cent of
depression being accounted for by racism alone. According to researches racism has the potential

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of impacting in-utero disrupting the basic brain stem developed since racism impacts on
aboriginal people as a traumatic event. It can be stated as the result of policies that restrict human
choice which contribute to established risk factors for suicide, depression and being hopeless.
These factors force the individual to find suicide as the way of escaping. The social isolation that
aboriginals feel in the society is another leading cause of growing suicide among the indigenous
people. Beginning from the education, universities do not require any minimum standards of
cultural competence for taking degrees. However, there is a huge discrimination on the basis of
race that makes the indigenous students feel isolated in the field of education. Children have the
basic right to education. Yet there is large number of aboriginal children who do not get to access
their right to education and therefore later make them socially backward group. Unemployment,
family conflict, poverty, incarceration, hopelessness, childhood abuse and homelessness are
some of the common factors that create mental stress for the aboriginals and resulting to
depression and suicide.
Historical events may have contributed to the development of this disease or condition
The idea of aboriginals as the inferior group, backward and barbaric can trace its
footprint back to those justifying slavery in the 18th century. This has resulted stereotyping over
the continent even today. Aboriginals have been on the land of Africa for many years. Yet today
they are the backward group who are faced with severe social challenges. When investigated, it
certainly drew examples from the colonial period. For most of the period in the history, Europe
and African have been connected through trade, empire and migration which are both forced as
well as voluntary. It is not unknown that people of Europe have viewed people from Africa
through the distorting veil of racism and racial theory. Much of the racial discrimination and
racism arose from the political battles fought over the first few decades of 19th century. The

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European used racism for the purpose of dominating the African people with the help of slavery
and slave trade. During the end of the 18th century and the initial years of the 19th century racism
was seen as an extreme measure. However, the practice of injustice for the centuries in the
colonial period have sustained in the society and remained to continue (Snelgrove, Dhamoon &
Corntassel, 2014).
Traditional healing practices used to address this health concern
Many a times, aboriginal clients do not feel comfortable and confident with the standard
treatment offered by the mental health environment. Some of the traditional healing methods are
dream work, pipe ceremonies, energy healing circles, self care, sweat lodge, smudging and other
traditional learning. These are the culturally sensitive believes that aboriginal and first nation
clients feels comfortable. Dreamwork is a broad term that can be used to describe the exploration
and incorporation of dreams in psychotherapy. Healing circle is another therapy that would help
stepping out of ordinary time into safe and accepting environment. It helps in healing from
negative thoughts by opening mind that explores together by deepening human capacity to heal
alleviating the suffering and finding meaning in both joy and challenges (Pan et al., 2014).
As discussed above, Canada is considered to be a failure when the health of aboriginals
are discussed and taken under consideration. The health of indigenous people in Canada is
certainly a big embarrassment to the country. Depression is one of the major disorders that come
under the common and serious medical illness. Depression leads to range of emotional,
psychological and physical problems that can hamper a person’s capability of functioning at
home and work. The cause of suicide is mental illness among which depression is the most
common one. Much of the racial discrimination and racism arose from the political battles fought

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over the first few decades of 19th century. Aboriginal clients may not feel comfortable and
confident with the standard treatment offered by the mental health environment. Therefore, the
traditional healing methods are used for the aboriginals.

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References:
Boyer, Y. (2019). Moving Aboriginal health forward: Discarding Canada’s legal barriers.
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Dazzi, T., Gribble, R., Wessely, S., & Fear, N. T. (2014). Does asking about suicide and related
behaviours induce suicidal ideation? What is the evidence?. Psychological Medicine,
44(16), 3361-3363.
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