SENATE INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE TO CONDUCT HEARINGS ON THE PREVENTABLE EPIDEMIC – INDIAN YOUTH SUICIDE

- 03/24/10

WASHINGTON D.C. -

The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee will conduct an oversight hearing at  9:30 AM, Thursday, March 25, on “The Preventable Epidemic: Youth Suicides and the Urgent Need for Mental Health Care Resources in Indian Country.” The hearing will take place in Room 628 Dirks Senate Office Building, in Washington, D.C.

The hearing will examine the high rates of youth suicides in Indian Country and the need for early detection efforts and increased mental health resources in tribal communities. It will also explore how to replicate currently successful prevention programs throughout Indian Country.

The suicide rate for Native American is 70 percent higher than for the general U.S. population.  Native youth suffer suicide rates over 3 times the rate of the general population - the highest rate of suicide any population in the country.

 

Details follow:

WHO: Senators: U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Senator Byron Doran (D-ND); Vice Chairman John Barracks (R-WY) and other members of the committee.

WITNESSES: Randy Grinned, Deputy Director, Indian Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services; Colorado Magus, Sophomore at Ruinous High School, Mescal Apache Reservation, NM; Dr. Paula Clayton, M.D., Medical Director, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, New York, NY; Laurie Flynn, Executive Director, Teens, National Center for Mental Health Checkups at Columbia University, New York, NY; Hunter Genial, Behavioral Health Administrator, Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, MT. Pleasant, MI; Novae Ok, Senior Research Coordinator, Celebrating Life Youth Suicide Prevention Program, White Mountain Apache Tribe/Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health.

WHAT: Oversight hearing on “The Preventable Epidemic: Youth Suicides and the Urgent Need for Mental Health Care Resources in Indian Country.”

WHEN: 9:30 AM, Thursday, March 25, 2010

WHERE: 628 Dirks Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

WHY: To examine the alarming incidence of youth suicides in Indian Country and the need for early detection efforts, and increased mental health resources in tribal communities. The hearing will also examine successful efforts to prevent youth suicide and explore how they might be replicated throughout Indian Country.

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