Project information:
Based on a decade of mounting concern about an increasing youth suicide problem, the White Mountain Apache Tribe passed a tribal law mandating that any suicidal incident occurring on tribal lands including suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, suicide completions, and non-suicidal self-injury be recorded into a tribal suicide surveillance system.
We have worked with the tribe to develop data collection forms, design digital database, and employ and train the Celebrating Life suicide prevention team. This group of community- mental health specialists is responsible for tracking and maintaining the surveillance system for the tribe, as well as providing case management follow up visits to support community members’ wellbeing. The team analyzes data within the surveillance system and provides regular reports to key tribal leaders and stakeholders.
How the surveillance system works
Celebrating Life is a community-based surveillance and case management follow-up program that tracks suicide behaviors, binge substance use, and non-suicidal self-harm on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation and provides case management follow-up in real time to connect individuals with services. The program receives referrals from all tribal agencies, departments, and community members, and tracks these referrals and real-time case manager follow-ups in the database. In the first 12 years of implementation, White Mountain saw a 38% decrease in suicide deaths and 53% decrease in suicide attempts.2 Celebrating Life has received recognition from the American Psychiatric Association, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Indian Health Service
Replication
This surveillance system was recently adopted by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Hualapai Tribe, Cherokee Nation, areas of Navajo Nation, and Colville Confederated Tribes in Washington State. We are currently working on packaging the program for more widespread implementation in other tribal communities.