Mental health issues have been getting a lot of media attention in the past 24 hours and one UNBC professor has spent the past year studying it in Northern BC.
Dr. Henry Harder has been working with communities in suicide prevention, much of it “culturally appropriate” to First Nations communities, though he points out the struggles between native and non-native populations are very similar.
He points out “The First Nations communities are no different from the other communities, there’s a poverty issue that if people are poor and they have difficulty accessing services, then that affects their mental health.”
“From a western perspective , we think that we should go out, talk, give lectures, Powerpoint presentations, that kind of thing, but it may not be the most appropriate way,” he says.
One thing Dr. Harder has discovered is that young adults are more susceptible to acting on suicidal feelings.
“We applied for a grant to look at the young adult population and we were not successful in that last round, so we are going to re-do that application and see if we can get funding to look at that population,” he says.
“We find that as they form relationships and have kids, the pressure mounts,” he continues. “We see a higher level of mental stress, with that group.”
