Chapter 9: Conclusion to the Guide
This guide is more than a summary of available information about preventing suicide by American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth and young adults. It also is an acknowledgement that more is yet to be discovered about culturally appropriate prevention and far more is yet to be done. One of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) objectives in developing this guide is to create a document that will serve as a starting point for both discovery and action.
It is our hope that any discussions about suicide prevention that this guide stimulates will go beyond the narrow definitions of prevention and risk factors. Instead, we encourage you to move the conversation toward mental health promotion and a more positive focus on protective factors. The goal of any community should be to help its members achieve a state of mental health called “flourishing.” Flourishing is characterized not only by an absence of mental illness but also by a person’s emotional well-being and positive functioning in daily life. It supports a life that is well-lived. Approaching suicide prevention from this perspective can transform mental health care in this country.
Many of you who read this guide already will know a great deal about suicide prevention. Some of you will possess wisdom that exceeds what this guide offers. We encourage you to share your knowledge with us so that we can continue to learn and can help others learn more about what works in preventing suicide by young people. You can send your input directly to:
Captain Maria Dinger, R.N., M.S.
Chief, Suicide Prevention Branch
Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration
Center for Mental Health Services
Division of Prevention, Traumatic Stress,
and Special Programs
1 Choke Cherry Road
Rockville, MD 20857
Phone: 240–276–2016
E-mail: maria.dinger@samhsa.hhs.gov
For others who read this guide, the idea that suicide can be prevented or that you can have any involvement in its prevention may be new. We urge you to speak with those who are working to prevent suicide. Many lives have been saved because someone similar to you offered caring and hope to those who had lost hope or felt alone.
Regardless of your past experience, your future involvement in prevention efforts within your community is crucial. Suicide is a complex issue, and it will take an entire community coming together to address it successfully. Everyone is needed, and everyone has a role in suicide prevention.
As we began this guide by quoting Inuit wisdom, we will end it by quoting the wisdom of White Buffalo Calf Woman of the Lakotas:
When one sits in the Hoop of People,
One must be responsible because
All of Creation is related.
And the hurt of one is the hurt of all.
And the honor of one is the honor of all. And
whatever we do affects everything in the universe.