Grant: Operating Grant - Priority Announcement: Population Health Interventions

This grant requests support to continue the work of the CIHR-funded Swampy Cree Suicide Prevention Team (2007-2012). The Team includes members of the Swampy Cree Tribal Council communities (eight Northwestern Manitoba communities), university-based investigators and international consultants. The Team's two main research focuses are: 1) understanding who is at risk for suicide among Swampy Cree communities, and 2) developing culturally-appropriate suicide prevention strategies. Over the last five years, the Team has been successful in finding out from the communities about why they believe suicide is a problem in their communities and how to fix it. We have also done studies with large Aboriginal populations to further support these ideas. Over the next five years, the Team will focus on sharing new First Nations specific suicide prevention programs for families and adolescents in the Swampy Cree communities. An important focus of our work will be to train First Nations community members to be able to run these programs on their own in their remote reserve communities. By working with government and Chiefs in the communities, the knowledge we gain fromour work can have a direct impact on people in these community.