Modern strategies of preventive measures against suicide in native people: foreign literature review

High level of suicides among the native peoples is the serious problem of public health in many countries, including the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil. In Russia, this problem is critical to the same extent as it is in the listed countries In our country, the share of suicide cases among the native populations is disproportionally high. In the majority of foreign countries, there are special programs for the prevention of suicides among aborigines. This experience might be useful for working out preventive measures related to the native peoples of Russia. Aim: The aim of the present review is to analyze foreign literature and study modern strategies targeted at the prevention of suicides among native peoples. Methods: The author carried out the systematic analysis of publications related to the issues of suicide prophylaxis in native populations. The search was concentrated on scientific databases PubMed and MedLine with the implementation of the following keywords: «suicide», «native people», «indigenous», «aborigines», «prevention», «strategies», «protective factors». The depth of the search was 10 years in regard to the period from 2007 to 2017 years. Results: There were 72 papers found in relation to the said period of time. The majority was issued by the authors from the USA, namely 43 scientific works (59.7%), Australia 11 (15.3%) and Canada 12 (16.7%). There were 4 scientific works from Norway and Sweden (5.5%), 1 from New Zealand (1.4%) and 1 from England (1.4%). The strategy of suicide prevention in native peoples includes three types of intervention: universal, selective and individual. Selective ones determine specific directions and types of intervention, addressed to sensitive groups of population, including native populations. Conclusions: Programs aimed at suicide prevention in native peoples are very specific and should involve important directions, critical for their execution. Among those directions are: 1) rehabilitation of cultural traditions, 2) involvement of members of the native communities into the working out and realization of the preventive measures, 3) integration of modern medical knowledge and traditional practices, 4) strengthening of the viability of native young people.