University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, March 25, 1992
5
Suicide, drugs high in Indian teens
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Nearly one in six American Indian adolescents has attempted suicide, a rate four times that of other teen-agers, according to a study that found alarming health problems on reservations.
American Indian youth are more likely to come from broken homes or abuse drugs, and 20 percent describe their health as poor, said the report published yesterday by the American Medical Association.
"This is the most devastated group of adolescents in the United States," said Michael Resnick, a University of Minnesota researcher who helped conduct the study.
Many American Indian youth know friends or family members who have killed themselves, so suicide has become the way for them to deal with the distress and hopelessness that pervades their lives, the researchers said.
American Indian teen-agers are twice as likely to die in their youth as non American Indians, the study said.
"Native American youths have a familiarity and intimacy with death and loss within families comparable to few other young people in our society," the study said.
The researchers said the problems can be solved with improved health services, better education, stronger cultural ties and the creation of mentorship programs to give American Indian youth the role models many do not have.
The study offered a glimmer of hope. American Indian adolescents do not experience more health and mental problems than nonAmerican Indian young people until they reach the ninth grade, according to the survey
Ren. George Miller, head of the
House Interior Committee, said the study dispelled the story that American Indians are doing all right.
"We are now on notice... exactly how devastated this community is," the California Democrat said at a news conference with the researchers. "You cannot participate in the formation of public policy and ignore the conclusions of this report."
Everett Rhoades, director of the Indian Health Service, said the health problems amounted to a "great epidemic that's taking off among Indian youth."
There are only 17 mental health workers for the nation's 400,000 Indian youth; 200 are needed, said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, head of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee.
Nearly 14,000 rural teen-agers from 50 tribes in 15 states answered the anonymous questionnaire.
Although the study was confined to
reservations, health problems are as bad, if not worse, among urban Indian youth, the researchers said.
- One in four Indian boys is a problem drinker by the end of high school
American Indian youth were half as likely to have both their mother and father at home as rural white teenagers in Minnesota and twice as likely to have experienced the death of a parent.
Eleven percent of the American Indian teens surveyed knew someone who had committed suicide, and 17 percent had attempted suicide themselves. American Indian adolescents are more than twice as likely as non-American Indians to die from suicide.
Eleven percent of the American Indian youth reported extreme hopelessness, and 18 percent said they were constantly sad.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Cultural barriers to franker, fairer relations between the sexes are frustrating efforts to stem the worldwide spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases in women, experts say.
Too often, women have little or no say in whether their partners sleep with others or whether they wear condoms to protect against such diseases, women physicians, social scientists and activists said during a conference on the problem.
The Associated Press
The experts from 17 countries concluded a four-day meeting last Thursday by recommending a more integrated approach to treating AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases and reproductive tract infections.
Cultural, gender barriers hurt fight against STDs
called for access to legal abortions.
They also appealed for additional money for women's health care programs, urged the development of effective vaginal microbicides and inexpensive test kits for infections and
"At the bottom of all this, we still have the question of male-female relationships," said Peggy Antrobus, a women's development specialist at the University of the West Indies in Barbados.
But above all, they agreed that the programs must be accompanied by a "new sexual contract" between men and women.
"Unless those change, you're not going to get far with any of these solutions." Antrobus said.
Participants called for greater decision-making power for women in sexual matters. At the same time, they said, men must be more caring and responsible, wearing condoms to avoid infecting their partners with any diseases. Ironically, the experts said, women in stable relationships are least able to protect themselves.
"I'm very worried about young women and housewives who are monogamous and who have partners
In many parts of the world, it is socially acceptable for husbands to have extramarital sex with mistresses or prostitutes. Yet housewives in most parts of the world cannot force their husbands to wear condoms — even if their extramarital relations are suspected or known. Nor can they refuse their spouses.
who are not," said Debrework Zewdie, Ethiopian founder of the Society for Women and AIDS in Africa.
"A women in my part of the world would be kicked out of the house if she says to him, 'I will not have sex with you because I know you are having sex with others,'" Zewie said.
The World Health Organization estimates that 12 million people now are infected with the HIV virus, and that the total will increase to 40 million by the year 2000. Further, 80 percent of HIV infections in the year 2000 are expected to be transmitted through heterosexual relations. In 1992, about
40 percent of those infected with HIV will be women.
The condom is an effective means of preventing infection. But Lillian Wambua, a gynecologist from Cameroon, said many men in her country resisted using condoms and would be highly offended if their wives suggested that they wear them. Experts from Asia, South America and the United States made the same observation.
Napaporn Havanon, a sociologist in Thailand, where prostitution is a well-developed industry, said condom use in brothels had risen markedly because of the fear of AIDS. Among the general population, only about 4 percent use condoms even though married men commonly have extra-marital sex, including with prostitutes, he said.
Experts say education is crucial in changing these trends, though it will not be a simple task.
Scholarships for 1992-1993
Kansas and Burge Unions University/Community Service Scholarship Awards
As a result of the efforts of many students saving the furniture and art objects while providing invaluable service to firefighters during the Kansas Union fire on April 20, 1970, insurance carriers decided to present the Kansas Union with a gift. The Student Union Activities Board will again choose a student deserving of being awarded a scholarship from the interest on this gift.
Qualifications:
Must be a regularly enrolled KU student this spring semester and be enrolled for the fall 92 and spring 93 semesters. Must have demonstrated service to the university and/or the Lawrence community, and must have reference will be a minimal consideration in application review.
Available March 18 in SU Office, Kansas Union, 684-3477. Must be received by 5:00 p.m. Friday, April 10. Interviews will be Tuesday,
Applications:
1/2 of 1/2
PRICE
SALE
SAVE ON
MENS SPORTCOATS, TIES, SHIRTS, AND
A LARGE GROUP OF FAMOUS BRAND
SPORTSWEAR
SALE DATES THURS. MARCH 26TH,
THRU SUN MARCH 29TH
E
EASTONS
LIMITED
839 MASS. 843-5755 NO HOLDS, NO LAYWAYS, ALL SALES FINAL.
The Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center presents
Women's Music Extravaganza
In Honor of Women's History Month "Women's History: A Patchwork of Many Lives"
Featuring:
Tuesday, March 31, 1992
8:00 p.m.
Swarthout Recital Hall
Murphy Hall
Nancy Crane
Kelley Hunt
Susan Hyde
Theresa Jackson
Kim L. Murphree
Rebecca Proffitt
Stacy Stringer
Full Circle
KU Jazz Choir
spirational Gospel Voices
Free Admission!!!
WHY NOT
let someone LIVE?
KU BLOOD DRIVE TODAY 10:00 am-4:00 pm KANSAS UNION Walk-ins Welcome! Give a little and save a life.