Anchorage Daily News

Alaska State Troopers and state health officials are reporting a stunning number of suicides this month in Western Alaska, most of them involving teenagers.

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Since the start of the month, six people have killed themselves in communities on or near the Seward Peninsula, including two deaths in the small community of Selawik, population 820. More have attempted to take their own lives in recent weeks, troopers said.

"It's alarming. It's disturbing," troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters. "It's a tragedy all the way around, and we just want to see it stop."

With a suicide rate that is nearly twice the national average, Alaska has consistently ranked at or near the top in per capita suicide rate, according to the state Department of Health and Social Services. Last year, the state had 146 suicides, higher than its average of roughly 128 over the past decade, said James Gallanos, the Division of Behavioral Health's lead suicide prevention coordinator.

But the rates vary greatly by region, and Northwest Alaska is consistently the deadliest.

Norman Eck is superintendent of the Northwest Arctic Borough School District, which lost three students in recent weeks, he said. A 42-year-old Selawik woman who committed suicide Dec. 8 was the mother of another two students.

"I know of four other attempts where students were discovered soon enough to survive it. So this is scary," he said. Over the 10 years ending in 2006, the Nome census area, with 67 suicides, had the highest rate of suicide in the state with 73 per 100,000. With 50 suicides and a rate of 86 per 100,000, the Northwest arctic census area was second highest.

"It is typical for us to have high numbers of suicide in this region, especially among our Alaska Native male teens," Gallanos said. "If you went and you looked at all the villages and communities, you'll often see that suicides will cluster together in a particular community or a particular region."

Now, in the span of the first 2-1/2 weeks of December, those two areas have seen a marked jump with six suicides spread among five communities. On average, roughly 25 percent of successful suicides in Alaska are committed by youths between the ages of 15 and 24, Gallanos said. The Alaska rate for youths in that range is three times the national average, according to the health department.

The recent rash is far exceeding that rate, with four of the six suicides committed by people in that age range. The recent incidents in Western Alaska include:

• A 17-year-old girl in Selawik Dec. 1.

• A 23-year-old man in Teller Dec. 7.

• A 42-year-old woman in Selawik Dec. 8.

• A 15-year-old boy in Noatak Dec. 9.

• A 17-year-old boy in Kiana on Monday.

• A 26-year-old man in Brevig Mission on Wednesday.

Northwest political, education and nonprofit leaders meeting in Anchorage on Thursday to discuss issues affecting the area said they're worried about the trend and are talking about how to stop future suicides.

Maniilaq, the Native nonprofit that provides social services in the area, reports the number of suicides this year in the region is the most on record, said president and chief executive Ian Erlich.

"A lot of us are nervous about the whole situation, and we're cautiously optimistic that it's not going to continue," he said.

While officials in the region said winter can be particularly high-risk for suicide, University of Massachusetts professor Lisa Wexler -- who studies suicide in Northwest Alaska -- said statistics show no link between suicide rates and seasons.

In fact, December, with the holidays and shortest days of the year, was the month with the fewest total suicides recorded between 1990 and 2006 -- though none of the months were significantly higher or lower than the others, according to health department data.

It is true, Wexler said, that rates tend to be higher among men and young people.

"We're trying to work with the community members to not only have people be more aware, but when people are starting to talk about suicide at a very early age, that they're taken serious," said Borough Mayor Siikauraq Whiting, also attending the Anchorage meeting.

"What can we do as auntie? Sister? Brother?" she said.

Historically, the suicides seem to come in waves, Whiting said.

In Selawik, several suicide attempts by teenagers and some adults in the village followed the first suicide at the beginning of December, said Lenora Foxglove, executive director for the Native Village of Selawik.

As for what inspired the wave, "I can't tell you for sure," she said. "That we're still thinking about, so we don't really know what was behind all this."

Lack of easily accessible mental health care in many parts of the isolated region has been an issue with getting those in need the treatment they need, either because of the lack of qualified health care professionals or a cultural divide between the providers and community, Gallanos said.

Recently, the state has been working with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to train health aides in the communities with the goal of offering a counselor in every village, he said.

In October, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded the state a $1.5 million grant to combat youth suicide. With it, the state is working to build regional networks of teams to find and address problems that cause stress for youths, particularly in the Bush.

Erlich, the Maniilaq president, said he didn't want to speculate on the cause of the recent deaths.

"What we do know is that the cost of living has gone up substantially in our region this year, and that very well may be contributing to the grief and hardship that already exists when there's no jobs and no law enforcement presence to speak of. ..."

"But I wouldn't say that that would be the cause."

Maniilaq, along with NANA Corp. and the borough, hope to hold a kind of suicide prevention retreat by the end of January, inviting people from each village. Those people could, in turn, return to their town as mentors, Erlich said.

"I think what we've found is that we need to teach the younger generation some of our history. How we got to where we are today," he said. Alaska Native youths account for 19 percent of the total Alaska population between the ages of 10 and 19 but commit 60 percent of the suicides, according to DHSS numbers.

Lack of jobs and opportunities, alcohol abuse, trauma, abuse, mental problems can all be contributing factors to suicide for all groups, Gallanos said. Alaska Natives, particularly teens, can have the additional burden of feeling a loss of culture and identity, he said.

Since a 17-year-old boy killed himself in Kiana on Monday, villagers there have been pulling together in the face of tragedy with the help of grief counselors being brought in by the school district and the local nonprofit, said Tom Cyrus, town mayor.

Some villages have permanent counselors, but others, like Kiana, do not, he said. As with other villages, Kiana once had a Boys and Girls club, but it's now shut down, he said in a telephone interview.

With few jobs to be had, many villages simply have little, at least economically, to offer their youth, who can begin feeling hopeless and desperate as a result, he said.

"It definitely is an issue that touches almost everybody in our region," Cyrus said. "I think we need more programs in the community that are positive, things that students can do. We need to provide more positive outlets for them because there just isn't a lot to do but walk around the streets, and it's too bad."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or e-mail khopkins@adn.com

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