Suicide Among Aboriginal People in Canada - Institut universitaire ...

Chapter 4Fatalistic suicide can occur in rigid and oppressive social situations with few options, while anomicsuicide occurs in situations of loss of social structure and norms. However, these situations are notmutually exclusive, since communities may be rigid in some respects and chaotic in others. The lackof order and direction in a community not only leaves youth aimless and disoriented, it limits theiroptions in the larger society. Aboriginal communities are embedded in a larger social system that mayhave rigid rules and procedures and allow few positive roles and opportunities for Aboriginal people.Forms of institutional and bureaucratic rigidity, in turn, are embedded in a larger world system markedby rapid and unpredictable change. The distinct forms of suicide characterized by Durkheim may thusnot capture the range of conflicting situations faced by youth confronted with local community politics,larger institutional structures, and constant exposure to mass media views of the larger world.Poverty and UnemploymentIn the general population, socio-economic disadvantage is associated with increased rates of suicide andattempted suicide (Agerbo, 2003; Hawton et al., 2001; Qin et al., 2003). This association is reduced butnot eliminated when the influence of family history of mental illness or suicide is taken into account(Agerbo et al., 2002). Suicide rates have been found to be strongly correlated with the percentage ofpopulation below the poverty level among Native Americans in the United States (Young, 1990) andamong Aboriginal people on 26 reserves in Alberta (Bagley, 1991).In most studies of the general population, suicidality is strongly associated with unemployment for bothmen and women (Agerbo, 2003; Dyck et al., 1988; Hawton, Fagg, and Simkin, 1988). Although theeffect of unemployment is generally stronger for men than for women (Cormier and Klerman, 1985;Wasserman, 1992), unemployment may have an additional indirect effect on women when men respondto this social stress with alcoholism and physical abuse of their spouses.To examine whether suicide was associated with unemployment for Native Americans in the UnitedStates, Lester (1995) compared the suicide rates of three Indian tribes in New Mexico from 1958 to1986 with the unemployment level for the United States. He found that the average suicide rate for theAmerican Indian tribes was significantly correlated with the overall unemployment rates for the UnitedStates and New Mexico (r=0.52 and 0.63, respectively).Rates of unemployment are much higher among Aboriginal people than for the general population. In1987, the percentage of status Indians living on-reserve and receiving social assistance was 2.5 times thetotal Canadian rate (Medical Services Branch Steering Committee on Native Mental Health, 1991b). Thesituation is similar among the Inuit (Irwin, 1989). However, Thompson suggests that “Unemployment isseldom reported as a problem in native male suicides because it is the “status quo” on most reserves and isno more of a problem for the victim than it is for the rest of his community” (1987:268). In communitieswhere traditional subsistence patterns and values have been maintained, wage employment may be lessdirectly linked to self-esteem and the impact of unemployment thereby lessened. Of course, this does notmean that lack of employment (or meaningful work) is not a factor in suicide among Aboriginal people,only that its effect may vary across communities, and it must be measured and interpreted in light of theeconomic history and values of specific communities (McDonald, 1994; Satzewich and Wotherspoon,1993). Unemployment must be examined in terms of its implications for economic resources, socialstatus, meaningful work, and personal goals.56