Indigenous Parents and Healing from Youth Suicide: “I Don't Know, I Just Pray.”
Keywords:
Suicide, Indigenous, Loss, Grief, Canada, Manitoba, Trauma, HealingAbstract
Worldwide, Indigenous teens die by suicide and have more suicidal attempts than any other adolescent population and are overrepresented in every suicide statistic category. This study provides a new lens to look at Indigenous youth suicide through the perspectives of their parents, thereby giving them a voice in prevention and interventions. The findings of this qualitative study show that to help with their healing process, Indigenous parents require a connection to spirituality and culture, social supports, and an understanding that healing is lifelong, after the death or attempt of suicide by their child. Recommendations from this study are that Western systems adapt to focus on spirituality and culture in healing, as well as promote the destigmatization of suicide within Indigenous communities so that social supports can increase for parents who have experienced loss by suicide or suicide attempts by their children. In addition, professional helpers require more training in loss and grief, culturally relevant healing practices, and need to centre Indigenous knowledge in the creation of future intervention and postvention services.
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