09/22/2025
In honor of Su***de Prevention Month, we wanted to highlight the work of indigenous researchers who are re-imagining what su***de prevention can look like for our communities through a decolonial lens.
The Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) has shifted the focus on su***de prevention programs from an individualized treatment modality focused on pathology and challenges to instead build upon community, strengths, and culturally aligned interventions. After conducting interviews with community members about their needs, a program was created called Qungasvik, a Yup’ik word meaning “toolkit,” which aims to reduce youth su***de risk by providing culturally grounded activities and learning.
“In the Yup’ik worldview, su***de is not a mental health disorder, and it’s not an individual affliction, it’s a disruption of the collective. And so the solution to su***de needs to be at the community level.”
Read more on the Qungasvik program here:
https://www.npr.org/2024/09/10/nx-s1-5100913/su***de-prevention-program-alaska-native-community-mental-health
Photo Descriptions: Sunrise view from the cemetery in Mountain Village, a community in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the morning after Drake "Clayton" Wilde's burial. Wilde was only 19 years old when he died by su***de, following a number of local teens who have taken their lives in recent years.
Gideon Green (center) sings with a group of drummers at a Yup'ik dance practice in Hooper Bay that's been supported by Qungasvik. For Green, who has lost several close friends to su***de, the group has proven integral to his healing.
A river bisects the village of Nunapitchuk in Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Located along the Bering Sea, the Y-K Delta has the highest rates of su***de in the United States. It is one of the country's most remote regions, with no physical infrastructure connecting its villages to the national road system.
Brandon Kapelow
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