Creating Communities of Practice to Prevent Suicide: Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide (PC CARES)

Monday, September 9, 2024 at Noon
Although youth suicide is now a pressing and urgent issue faced by Alaska Native communities, this tragedy is a recent phenomenon in Alaska and is linked to historic and on-going colonization. Treating AN youth suicide as only an individual mental health problem ignores this structural violence, and typically requires professional intervention that is not often available or culturally responsive in rural AN communities. Facilitated by community members, Promoting Community Conversations About Research to End Suicide (PC CARES) builds a ‘community of practice’ through a series Learning Circles (LCs). Each session covers different ‘bite-size’ research-based ideas and best practices, which participants discuss in the context of their own knowledges and experiences in order to generate ideas, deepen relationships and build momentum for personal and collective actions. Building community capacity and relationships, PC CARES sparks trust and learning so that suicide prevention strategies are adapted in real time and used in ways that reflect participants’ own culture, unique priorities, understandings, and local dynamics. Thus, the approach is culturally-responsive, evidence-informed and offers tools to leaders, family members, service providers and others who can use their learning to address other complex and emerging issues on their own terms.

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