News
Archived News Item
December 11, 2006 - One Sky Center issues a Suicide Prevention Guide specifically targeted for American Indian and Alaska Native adolescents

Portland, Oregon -- The One Sky Center, the first National Resource Center for American Indians and Alaska Natives dedicated to improving prevention and treatment of substance abuse and mental health, will issue a Suicide Prevention Guide specifically targeted for the American Indian and Alaska Native adolescents.

The Suicide Prevention Booklet titled, A Guide to Suicide Prevention for American Indian/Alaska Native Communities, is a first of its kind resource directory for Indian Country in the United States. The booklet contains background information on suicide, protective and risk factors, prevention strategies, a list of promising programs being used in tribal communities, a directory of mental health consultants working in native communities, and a community suicide assessment tool.

The One Sky Center will distribute the guide to native communities and schools across the United States in early 2007, and will also make the booklet electronically available via the One Sky Center website.

In the last two years, the One Sky Center has served as a key resource to both the public and private sectors, including intergovernmental entities. The Center serves in an advisory capacity to key leaders, and has been invited to testify as an expert witness on Capitol Hill as part of a series of Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearings on the topic of teen suicide in Indian Country.

The One Sky Center is helping to lead a cultural movement toward identification, acceptance, and implementation of culturally appropriate substance abuse and mental health services that work in the American Indian and Alaska Native world. This activity spans awareness raising, coalition building, motivation enhancement, resource development (such as inventories of best practice), broad dissemination, training, and technical assistance.

The One Sky Center located at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon was created in 2003. R. Dale Walker, MD, is the Center's Director and is a Cherokee psychiatrist with qualifications and 30 years experience in the addictions field.

For more information about the One Sky Center, the Suicide Prevention Guide, Congressional testimonies, etc., please visit the One Sky Center website, call 503.494.3703 or contact, Michelle Singer via email.


Reminder: The One Sky Center American Indian Community Suicide Assessment Tool is available on our website. You may access and download it at One Sky Center Publications.