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Arctic Suicide, Social Medicine, and the Purview of Care in Global Mental Health

Youth suicide is a significant health disparity in circumpolar indigenous communities, with devastating impacts at individual, family, and community levels. This study draws on structured interviews and ethnographic work with health professionals in the Alaskan Arctic to examine the meanings assigne...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Trout, Lucas, Wexler, Lisa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Harvard University Press 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348442/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32669791
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author Trout, Lucas
Wexler, Lisa
author_facet Trout, Lucas
Wexler, Lisa
author_sort Trout, Lucas
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description Youth suicide is a significant health disparity in circumpolar indigenous communities, with devastating impacts at individual, family, and community levels. This study draws on structured interviews and ethnographic work with health professionals in the Alaskan Arctic to examine the meanings assigned to Alaska Native youth suicide, as well as the health systems that shape clinicians’ practices of care. By defining suicide as psychogenic on the one hand, and as an index of social suffering on the other, its solutions are brought into focus and circumscribed in particular and patterned ways. We contrast psychiatric and social explanatory models, bureaucratic and relational forms of care, and biomedical and biosocial models for care delivery. Within the broader context of global mental health, this study suggests steps for linking caregiving to the health and social equity agenda of social medicine and for operationalizing commitments to health as a human right.
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spelling pubmed-73484422020-07-14 Arctic Suicide, Social Medicine, and the Purview of Care in Global Mental Health Trout, Lucas Wexler, Lisa Health Hum Rights Research-Article Youth suicide is a significant health disparity in circumpolar indigenous communities, with devastating impacts at individual, family, and community levels. This study draws on structured interviews and ethnographic work with health professionals in the Alaskan Arctic to examine the meanings assigned to Alaska Native youth suicide, as well as the health systems that shape clinicians’ practices of care. By defining suicide as psychogenic on the one hand, and as an index of social suffering on the other, its solutions are brought into focus and circumscribed in particular and patterned ways. We contrast psychiatric and social explanatory models, bureaucratic and relational forms of care, and biomedical and biosocial models for care delivery. Within the broader context of global mental health, this study suggests steps for linking caregiving to the health and social equity agenda of social medicine and for operationalizing commitments to health as a human right. Harvard University Press 2020-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7348442/ /pubmed/32669791 Text en Copyright © 2020 Trout and Wexler. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research-Article
Trout, Lucas
Wexler, Lisa
Arctic Suicide, Social Medicine, and the Purview of Care in Global Mental Health
title Arctic Suicide, Social Medicine, and the Purview of Care in Global Mental Health
title_full Arctic Suicide, Social Medicine, and the Purview of Care in Global Mental Health
title_fullStr Arctic Suicide, Social Medicine, and the Purview of Care in Global Mental Health
title_full_unstemmed Arctic Suicide, Social Medicine, and the Purview of Care in Global Mental Health
title_short Arctic Suicide, Social Medicine, and the Purview of Care in Global Mental Health
title_sort arctic suicide, social medicine, and the purview of care in global mental health
topic Research-Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348442/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32669791
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