The Purpose of this paper is to discuss a social problem within our country and address the implications of this social problem. The topic in hand is the suicide epidemic that is happening in the indigenous communities concerning the aboriginal youths. Suicides have increased greatly and is killing the communities. This is a social problem because it is damaging society and damaging the communities and it needs to be corrected. In this paper I will critically identify and analyze whether this is a social problem. I will also address which population is being affected by this. I will look at it in a micro level by looking at the individual problem and I will look at it from a macro level meaning looking at the systems involved. I will also look into policies currently in place in Canada in helping solve this problem. We will look and see if it is effective in its mission. All in all, this paper will delve into the many facets if a serious problem occuring in Canada.
In order to deeply delve into this topic we must first understand what this topic is. In basic terms, youth suicide by aboriginals are different than suicides by non aboriginals. I say this because there is an increase in suicides within the aboriginal communities. As Eggertson, Laura (2015) points out in her study 42 percent of the suicides of the last 10 years have come from just seven communities. That is an alarming rate and why this is considered an epidemic. Now one must ask why there is so much suicides coming from indigenous communities. There can be different reasons. It could be due to bondness of their families, the lack of resources provided to the communities, and other social factors. Eggertson (2015) defends her point of view and states that the historical trauma is the main reason for the increase in suicides. Gerald Mckinney who worked at the Toronto Addiction centre for Mental Health says the intergenerational Trauma is what is causing these increases in suicides (Eggertson, Laura, 2015). The trauma from what the ancestors is getting past on from decades to decades. That could be one way to look at it but from a theoretical perspective it can be looked at a different way. They are two theories that come to mind when best understanding the epidemic occurring in the indigenous communities. The first one being symbolic interaction. Symbolic interaction is a theory by George Mead, Charles Cooley and Erving Coffman. This theory as (Holmes, Mooney, Knox and Schacht, 2016) point in their textbook its based on society being a network of interlocking roles and social order being constructed by interaction. Based on this term a problem is caused through labelling and difference of opinion upon roles. This theory plays into the suicide epidemic because part of the reason so many young folks in the indigenous communities are committing suicides is because of a lack of identity. This lack of identity is created based off of being labelled due to historical events. Being labelled can also create trauma that can past from generations to generation. Another minor theory that can best describe this topic is social learning theory is a theory that states that new behaviours can be created based off of observation. They were instances were kids in the indigenous communities were copying one another. As (Walls, Hautala and Hurley, 2013) find in their research suicides have occured based off of copycats or seeing someone commit it. One of the boys in a group study they commited said “I went to [another community] about 3 years ago . . . had a boy there, he was about 12 years old. He was playing around that evening with his friends. In the morning they found all those boys hanging [emphasis added], they had committed suicide.” (Walls, Hautala and Hurley, p. 53). Some kids in the community may look at their fellow community members and start to mimic them. The Symbolic interaction theory looks at it from a micro level by just looking at the individual itself. Conflict Theory looks at the system. Conflict Theory is a theory that was advocated by a man named Karl Marx. Marx believed that we as human beings are good but we are corrupted by society. The same can be said by the epidemic the youth in these communities are good but are being corrupted by their surroundings. Conflict Theory looks to more towards the system blaming the struggle of human beings towards the system. When it comes to the suicide epidemic in communities part of the problem has to o be towards the government. We stated earlier in the paper that the main reason for the epidemic is because of the historical trauma and the intergenerational trauma that comes with it. Is the canadian government doing anything to stop that. There has been an increase in suicide over the past 11 years (Eggertson, Laura, 2015). One could say the government is not doing enough. From the perspectives of the people that are living in the communities. They feel that the government is not taking care of the community and they are not being taken care of. Mehl-Madrona (2016) did a experiment where she interviewed suicide attempters in a community in Saskatchewan and one of the main causes they attempted to commit suicide was due to lack of resources the main one being poverty. If poverty was an issue responsibility has to be taken by the canadian government and programs have to start where they are looking specifically at ending poverty in the communities. As I alluded to earlier the main cause of conflict theory is inequality and it well known that the indigenous people of Canada have suffered inequality for centuries. Examples could be lack of resources, lack of funding, poverty, lack of education etc. These examples should fall into the responsibility of the government to find an effective way in managing this crisis and reducing the suicides happening in the communities. The micro level of this topic can look at through the symbolic interaction theory and the macro level of this topic can look at it from the conflict perspective. Both unique examinations and can allow for policies to be made.
They are different policies for different provinces but they are tackling this problem in the same way. For instance, they are sending mental health experts into remote communities to teach awareness about mental health Laura Eggertson (2016). As Laura points out this is not enough into reducing suicides. Current policies are not working and need more emphasis into the problem. For instance, we know the in canada most of the suicides are occuring in seven communities then we should spend most of our resources into those seven specific communities. Current policy focuses on taking action instead of doing action. They are prevention strategies all over Canada that are taking Action. However, I believe that a strategy that is being used in Victoria can be used all across canada. An example could be in rural Victoria where there is a Njernda Aboriginal Corporation based in Echuca, Victoria. As Isaacs (2016) points out in his report it's main purpose was to build early prevention and immediate postvention responses. There was many programs that were helping in that such as community awareness programs and healing programs. The goal was to create awareness and to see results within a three year frame. After extensive resources being put into this the results came and found that using both early and postvention programs were effective in preventing youth suicide. I believe that this program done in a small town in Victoria is most effective in reducing this epidemic . of we go to these communities and build these programs where there is help before the response and help afterwards can go a long way into further research and further evaluations. I believe the current policy in place is not doing enough to create awareness and prevention. What scholars Tousignant, Vitenti, & Morin (2013) proposed was to use public policy for prevention. What they proposed was for the province of Quebec to focus on 3 things and they are to focus on Youth protection, Administration Justice and housing. By focusing on these three areas will help in this social problem. For Youth Protection by to adapt new laws where children will not be put out by their own communities. Administration justice is key because proper prosecution is key for reconciliation between victim and suspect. Housing is important because it decreases poverty which is one of the main causes of youth suicide. These three areas the government of Canada can look at into improving this epidemic.
In this paper we looked at the problem known as the youth suicide in indigenous communities and looked at why it is considered a social problem. We also looked at what theories are associated with this problem and discussed the symbolic interaction theory and conflict theory. With those two theories in mind we were able to look at through a micro level meaning through the individual and at a macro level through the system (poverty, resources etc.) we finally were able to look at some of the policies in place and found it not to be effective at all and proposed new ideas. Some of those new ideas was to focus on some aspects of public policies in place and by using early prevention and postvention programs. All in all, I believe that by using these proposed ideas can help resolve this epidemic that is not only affecting the community but is affecting us in general