Saskatchewan First Nations suicide prevention strategy.

The Saskatchewan First Nations Suicide Prevention Strategy (SFNSPS) implements Resolution #2049, passed by the Chiefs-in-Assembly on May 18, 2017. This resolution directed the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) to “develop and release a First Nations Suicide Prevention Strategy, with inclusion of the FSIN Youth Representatives, by May 31, 2018.” Data obtained from the Office of the Chief Coroner reveals that between 2005 and 2016 the rate
of death by suicide among First Nations people in Saskatchewan was 4.3 times higher than the rate among non-First Nations people in the province. Further, the number of suicides by First Nations men rose by 50% between 2014 and 2015 – and remained elevated through 2016 and 2017. The rate of death by suicide in the three northern Health Regions, where Indigenous people comprise a larger proportion of the population than anywhere else in the province, was more than three times higher than the rate in the ten southern Health Regions. However, specific data on First Nations suicides by region or community are currently unavailable – one of several serious
data gaps we encountered.
As is the case in most societies, rates of death by suicide are higher among Saskatchewan First Nations men than among First Nations women. However, whereas the suicide rate among First Nations men was 3.4 times higher than among non-First Nations men, it was 8.4 times higher among First Nations women than among non-First Nations women (since the rate among nonFirst Nations women is so low).