Aboriginal youth suicide: towards a model of explanation and alleviation

CRG Report Number
2596-7

Criminology Research Council grant ; (25/96-7)

A model has been developed that may help explain and alleviate Aboriginal youth suicide in NSW and the ACT. Fieldwork was undertaken in fifty-five locations, and for comparison research into and strategies for alleviation of Maori youth suicide was also examined. Over 388 interviews were conducted with Aborigines and Maori, non-Indigenous personnel working with communities, police, coroners, psychiatrists and mental-health and youth workers in both countries.

The report presents strategies for alleviation that embrace an educational focus on historical, legal, political, social and cultural factors which impinge on Aboriginal and Maori youth suicide.