For Veronica Krupnick, talking to other students about mental health and thoughts of suicide at Fort Lewis College was a healing experience.
The 2017 FLC graduate started attending the Wellness Peer Advisory Council two weeks after starting school because she was a public health major and she found a niche there.
“My dad likes to tell me: ‘Make your mess your message.’ And I think that group really allowed me to do that, and in that I also had a lot of self healing,” she said.
Before she turned 10, Krupnick was exposed to domestic violence, child abuse and substance abuse at her home while living in Arizona and then in Albuquerque, she said. She also struggled with suicidal feelings from the time she was 7 until she was about 19.
“Accomplishing, like, normal life has been a huge deal. Having an 8 to 5 job and a house and a car was this giant accomplishment,” she said.
She worked as a pharmacy technician in the operating room at Animas Surgical Hospital up until this fall when she moved to Santa Fe to be close to her sister. She is now job hunting for a position that would let her work with at-risk youth.
Krupnick, 22, was adopted when she was 10 and reconnected with her biological Hopi family in recent months. Talking with her mother and grandmother, she found that they also experienced trauma.
“I think suicide in the Native American community is just one symptom of the problem. It’s not like if you take care of this one issue that it’s all going to be better. There’s so, so much there – so much trauma and pain. We need more people to talk about it, if anyone is going to heal moving forward,” she said.
She considers herself lucky because her adoptive parents got her into counseling, and they also provided an open environment where she could talk about her traumatic experiences.
“We were so open in the house. I was able to bring that into my school life of being open with everyone else just because I had talked about it so much,” she said.
Krupnick was the only Native American student in WellPAC when she started school in 2014, but three years later, Native Americans represented about a third of the students attending, in part because she invited so many of her friends to go with her.
It was also a time of growth for the group in general, she said.
“We had a handful of really dedicated students that made it their mission to reach to their friends,” she said.
Now, Native American students represent about a quarter of the group, WellPAC adviser Kendra Gallegos Reichle said.
WellPAC is focused on helping students live a physically and mentally healthy lifestyle in the most holistic and nonjudgmental way, Krupnick said.
In some cases, students aren’t ready to talk to a counselor, but if they can be comfortable talking with their friends about their mental health, that can be a first step, she said.
The group also organizes events.
For example, during homecoming for several years the group put together a healing wall and offered students the opportunity to write down their worries and struggles anonymously and nail them to the wall. Students could post their worries for others to read, and it offered them a way to see that they were not alone, she said.
They invited a Native American tribal leader to bless the wall and then burned it to symbolize releasing those worries, Krupnick said.
Some Native Americans are taught to be stoic and not to complain, but that can be harmful, she said.
“These are huge traumas that people never talk about, and that’s going to affect your life at some point,” she said.
Those who experienced four or more forms of childhood trauma are at an increased risk for alcoholism, drug abuse, depression and suicide attempts, according to a Kaiser Permanente study of 17,000 people.
Nationally, the suicide rate among Native American and Alaskan Native youths between ages 15 and 34 is 1.3 times the national average at about 19 deaths per 100,000 people annually, said Pamela End of Horn, national suicide prevention consultant with Indian Health Service, headquartered in Maryland. However, the rate is likely higher because of under-reporting, she said.
Each of the 573 Native American tribes in the United States is different, and some of them, especially tribes in the Southwest, have a tendency not to talk about suicide because it is taboo, she said.
In those cases, the agency tends to focus on wellness instead and help tribes foster meaningful connections between their youths and each tribe’s cultural identity, she said.
“We really try to focus on it from the perspective of connectivity. How do we reconnect, rekindle and re-energize cultural aspects to really create that feeling of hope and purpose? As well as really help Native youth to really reconnect to who they are as an indigenous person,” End of Horn said.
The agency also encourages tribes to look for ways to incorporate suicide intervention trainings, such as Question Persuade Refer, in a culturally relevant way, she said.
QPR is similar to CPR for suicide prevention. It teaches students to recognize common signs that someone might be experiencing suicidal thoughts. The curriculum also covers how to question someone about suicidal feelings, persuade them to seek treatment and refer them to a professional.
In Ignacio, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe has hosted several QPR trainings and Mental Health First Aid trainings through a five-year grant program called Intergenerational Intertribal (I2) Positive Solutions for Native Health, said Rachell Tenorio, the director of the program with the Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board.
The program was designed specifically for tribes in the Southwest, and it is aimed at reducing substance abuse and suicide ideation among Native American youths who have experienced trauma. It is also intended to promote positive cultural identity and promote mental wellness.
“We feel strongly that by honoring youth for who they are that can contribute to a decrease in substance use and mental health outcomes,” Tenorio said.
The program is funded by a $1 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. It is the first grant the Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board has received to address suicide, she said.
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Rainbow Band of Navajos are both participating in the grant program.
To build cultural identity, the health board staff recommends two programs to tribes, Cultural and Drugs Don’t Mix and Storytelling for Empowerment.
The Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board staff is working with Southern Ute Indian Tribe members, including teens and elders, on a digital storytelling project that may be an outlet for youths to talk about suicide, she said.
“We all have strengths individually, like our own stories to share,” Tenorio said.
The focus on connecting youths to their culture to prevent suicide has not been studied extensively, but it is rooted in the historical experiences of Native American tribes and their ability to persist despite colonization, she said.
Among the Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s members, there has also been more conversation in general about the topic, including a community meeting in August, said Beverly Bowman, the program coordinator.
“Just that is a big step toward prevention,” she said.
As part of the grant, members of the tribal community will also become trainers in Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training and SafeTALK so they can hold trainings for the tribe, Bowman said. The trainings focus on how to recognize signs of suicidal feelings, intervene and create a safety plan for people feeling suicidal.
I2 also set up an intergenerational community advisory panel of six people, including elders, youths, social services personnel and others, to guide the prevention work, Tenorio said.
“They provide us direction and make sure what we’re doing is culturally relevant and sensitive,” she said.
While suicide is a tough topic, tribal adults and elders are interested in how to ask if someone is feeling suicidal, where to refer them and what behaviors a person at risk of suicide might exhibit, Bowman said. The trainings are addressing those questions.
Bowman doesn’t change the Question Persuade Refer training when she presents it to tribal communities. But she will include statistics about suicide among Native Americans before presenting the training, and afterward, she emphasizes that Native American traditions and culture can help prevent suicidal behavior, she said.
Staff at the Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board would consider the program successful if, at the end of the grant cycle, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe continued suicide prevention work on its own, Tenorio said.
The Southern Ute Indian Tribe offers several solutions-oriented programs and support for suicide prevention and care, but the tribe would not agree to be interviewed for these stories.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
