Suicide pact by 13 young aboriginal people, including nine-year-old.

A suicide pact by 13 young aboriginal people, including a nine-year-old, has been thwarted on a remote First Nation in northern Ontario where local leaders say they’re so overwhelmed by the suicide crisis that extra police officers have been called in from nearby communities.

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After 11 people tried to kill themselves, a remote Ontario First Nation has declared a state of emergency to prevent deaths among young people. Here’s what has happened, what’s being done about it and some important context to understand it

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The House of Commons will hold an emergency debate this evening over "the gravity" of the many suicide attempts on the northern Ontario First Nation reserve of Attawapiskat.

Members of Parliament will address the crisis during the debate scheduled to begin at approximately 6:40 p.m. ET and expected to last until midnight.

The request for an emergency debate comes as Attawapiskat Chief Bruce Shisheesh fears more young people will try to harm themselves while the community tries to grapple with the crisis after declaring a state of emergency Saturday, following reports of 11 suicide attempts in one day. There are also reports of over 100 suicide attempts and at least one death since September.

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Portabella said:

I don't think its possible this many have mental health issues, something is terribly wrong, and it NEEDS to be addressed, our youth is screaming out for help....What needs to change? What can we do about it? this is a horror....they are just starting their lives....IMHO

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dotr said:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...understand-the-suicidecrisis/article29583059/
View attachment 91865
Attawapiskat: Four things to help understand the suicide crisis


The Canadian Press and Globe staff Last updated: Tuesday, Apr. 12, 2016 1:48PM EDT

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TORONTO -- A rash of suicide attempts by young people on the Attawapiskat reserve appears to be a case of so-called suicide contagion, a chain reaction triggered within the community by abominable living conditions and a shared sense of despair and hopelessness, experts say.

Attawapiskat's chief declared a state of emergency Saturday after the remote northern Ontario community recorded 11 suicide attempts so far this month and 28 others in March. Community leaders also intervened after subsequently discovering that 13 other young people on the reserve -- including a nine-year-old -- had made a pact to take their own lives.

"As its name implies, (the idea of suicide) becomes contagious," said Robert Olson, head of information services at the Centre for Suicide Prevention. "It's often defined as a suicide cluster, multiple suicidal behaviours in a time frame and within a specific geographic area."

Choosing to end one's life is seen as a way to escape severe and unrelenting emotional pain, Olson said Tuesday from Calgary. "If someone sees their relative or, say, their good friend and they seemingly have solved the problem, it perhaps incites in them the idea, hence the contagion element."

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TORONTO -- A group of aboriginal rights activists staged a sit-in at the Toronto offices of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada on Wednesday, saying they were acting in solidarity with a remote Ontario First Nation struggling with a suicide crisis.

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There have been several crises in Attawapiskat in recent years, including annual spring flooding, contaminated drinking water and a condemned schoolhouse built on the site of a massive diesel spill.

Wednesday's demonstrators identified themselves as grassroots protesters and said they wanted to see improvements in Attawapiskat, as well as in other First Nations communities.

"To wait until an emergency situation is shameful. So that's why we're here," said Carrie Lester. "People need to wake up."

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Portabella said:

I don't think its possible this many have mental health issues, something is terribly wrong, and it NEEDS to be addressed, our youth is screaming out for help....What needs to change? What can we do about it? this is a horror....they are just starting their lives....IMHO

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JeannaT said:

Well, if there are 100 suicide attempts with only one death, these kids aren't trying. Which is a good thing. It sounds like it's kind of the "thing to do", like so many very odd "things to do" that teenagers do during that time of their lives.

Our school district - and many others, and many communities at large - don't publish deaths by suicide. Other accidental or deaths by illness get the full public awareness, and articles in the paper and official school district memos sent out asking for prayers for the grieving family, but not suicides.

If you recognize it, more will do it. We had 3 suicides in a nearby middle school in a month a couple years ago, and had to place parent volunteers around the school and in the restrooms to keep from losing the whole school. Kids get an idea that they'll get attention - even if it kills them, literally - and so they'll do it.

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