Lac Brochet in turmoil over suicide attempts

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This article was published 24/12/2009 (6052 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — A Manitoba mother is speaking out after a wave of suicide attempts in her northern community has her worried about the future of the reserve.

The mother, who the Free Press has chosen not to name to protect the privacy of her children, says five Lac Brochet teenagers have attempted suicide in the last few weeks. One of them was her 16-year-old son.

"He said it was because of the way we are living," the mother said.

She is separated from her husband and lives in a small home with her older two children. The house has no running water and only a wood stove as a source of heat.

"Somebody has to wake up here in our reserve," she said. "There is nothing to do. It’s an isolated place."

Lac Brochet is a community of nearly 1,000 people, 200 kilometres north of Lynn Lake. Unemployment is high and less than one in four adults older than 25 has finished high school. More than half the homes need major repairs, according to Statistics Canada.

It is one of the communities Free Press health reporter Jen Skerritt profiled this year as having one of the highest rates of tuberculosis in the world.

Children are treated for mental-health issues in a hospital setting in Winnipeg, 1,000 kilometres away.

The mother says her son is on medication and sees his psychiatrist once a month in Winnipeg. Those visits alone are taxing, requiring a flight to Thompson and an overnight bus trip to Winnipeg.

The mother has already experienced the heartbreak of losing a child to suicide. In 2004, her 14-year-old son hanged himself. She said he was one of at least 10 young people who committed suicide on the reserve in the first half of this decade.

"I don’t want it to happen again," she said, unable to hold back her tears. "I am trying my best. I try hard not to cry."

She said her 14-year-old daughter has also been treated for depression. The teen can’t live with her mother at the moment because the condition of the home is too poor.

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation reported the suicide rate among Fist Nations is twice that of the non-aboriginal rate. Between the ages of 10 and 29, the foundation said kids on reserve are five to six times more likely to die of suicide than others in that age group. One-third of the deaths of all aboriginal youth are attributed to suicide.

In June, the Manitoba government announced a suicide-prevention strategy for northern Manitoba that includes programs to promote activities on reserves and the distribution of 10,000 comic books to aboriginal children to help them deal with anxiety and anger. Manitoba plans to spend $8 million on suicide prevention over the next four years.

Ottawa has announced $65 million over five years for a national suicide-prevention strategy, which includes developing community-specific strategies and crisis-response plans.

Manitoba Children’s Advocate Billie Schibler said there are a lot of good strategies in place for suicide prevention but it will be a long time before they will have an impact.

In the meantime, she said the federal government needs to come up with the new funding formula for child-welfare services for the province so families on reserves have better access to services and resources.

Critics say Ottawa has chronically underfunded the system for decades.

It’s slowly negotiating new agreements with provinces but Manitoba was not one of the two offered new funding this year.

Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl aims to have new formulas worked out with all provinces by 2013.

Lac Brochet Chief Joe Danttouze could not be reached Monday.

David Harper, grand chief of the northern chiefs organization, said he has discussed the suicide problem on northern reserves with Strahl and Manitoba Family Services Minister Gord Mackintosh.

He said another meeting is planned in the new year to discuss the idea of building healing lodges in the north to treat mental-health issues and prevent suicide.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca