He spent more than a week in an inpatient mental health unit, but once home, he was offered sparse mental health resources. Despite decades of research into suicide prevention, suicide rates among Indigenous people have remained stubbornly high, especially among Indigenous people ages 10 to 24, according to the CDC. Experts say that’s because the national strategy for suicide prevention isn’t culturally relevant or sensitive to Native American communities’ unique values. Several tribal communities are attempting to implement a similar system in their communities, said Cwik. Pamela End of Horn, a social worker and national suicide prevention consultant at IHS, said the Department of Veterans Affairs “has a suicide coordinator in every medical center across the U.S., plus case managers, and they have an entire office dedicated to suicide prevention.

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Persons: Amanda MorningStar, “, ”, MorningStar, Ben, Ben MorningStar, Mary Cwik, ” Cwik, Joseph P, Gros, Stephen O’Connor, Teresa Brockie, Brockie, Fort Belknap, It’s, Cwik, Pamela, Department of Veterans Affairs “, Robert Coberly, Coberly, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, ” Ben MorningStar Organizations: Health, Blackfeet, Centers for Disease Control, Montana Budget, Policy, . Montana, CDC, Indian Health Service, IHS, Center, Indigenous Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Harvard University, Division of Services, Intervention, National Institute of Mental Health, ”, NIMH, National Institutes of Health, Mental Health Services Administration, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, American Public Health Association, Department of Veterans Affairs, Oglala Lakota, Rural Behavioral Health Institute, CNN, CNN Health, Kaiser Health, KFF Locations: Heart Butte , Montana, United States, Heart Butte, Baltimore, Montana, Fort, Aaniiih, Fort Peck, Peck, Arizona, U.S, South Dakota, Tulalip, Washington