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Nebraska Health and Human Services System
has approved $140,000 for Native youth suicide prevention
efforts. The money will be divided among the state’s
four tribes: Ponca, Omaha, Winnebago and Santee.
Each tribe will receive $35,000, said Larry
Voegele, health program manager in the state’s Office
of Minority Health. Each tribe must submit a proposal for
how it plans to use the money. State health officials will
then review and approve or deny the proposals, he said.
Youth suicide is a problem tribal leaders
fear is growing. Nationally, Native people, ages 15 to 24,
commit suicide at a rate 3.3 times higher than those of other
ethnic groups.
On the Santee Sioux Reservation in Nebraska,
at least three teens have taken their lives since September
2005. Last year, at least three others attempted suicide on
the reservation that 1,000 Santee call home.
John Penn, executive director of the Omaha
Nation Community Response Team, said his tribe plans to use
its share of the state funds to organize a summer youth camp
designed in large part by youth workers. The camp, he said,
will provide his tribe’s youth an opportunity to talk
about the things that are troubling them. Penn said it’s
important to be proactive in trying to prevent youth suicide
rather than just reacting to it when it happens.
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