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Shannon Jefferson was booked into Washington’s Whatcom County Jail on Feb. 26, 2014, for a probation violation and failing to appear in court on a fourth degree assault charge. Twelve days later, Jefferson tied a bed sheet to the window in her isolation cell and hanged herself. She was 36 years old and the mother of six.

Three years later, on Aug. 9, 2017, police arrested Paula Jefferson for drunken driving and took her to the Whatcom County Jail. The following day she was dead of apparent methadone intoxication. She was 48 and a mother of four.

Paula and Shannon Jefferson were both Lummi tribal members. They were also cousins.

Their deaths in the Whatcom County Jail highlight two stark realities: Native Americans are disproportionately more likely to be in Northwest jails. As a result, they are also more likely to die in jail. While Native Americans make up less than 2% of the population in Washington and Oregon, they represent more than 4.5% of jail deaths. That’s according to an analysis of Northwest jail deaths by OPB, KUOW and the Northwest News Network.

A recent study on Washington jail deaths by Columbia Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm, concluded that Native Americans may also die at a higher rate in Washington jails. However, the report cautioned that “the small sample set of Native people who died makes it difficult to draw any conclusion with significant certainty.”

The findings reinforce studies that show Native Americans, as the result of generational trauma and discrimination, experience higher rates of incarceration, chronic disease and suicide. In fact, American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest suicide rate of any racial or ethnic group in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

“I’ll be very frank here: This is an issue of race,” said Margaret Severson, a jails consultant and professor of social work at the University of Kansas.

In 2005, Severson co-authored a first-of-its-kind report on American Indian suicides in jail that found Native American inmates “tended to be less candid” when asked by jailers about their physical and mental health, as well as drug and alcohol use. The report attributed this, in part, to a reluctance to answer “intrusive” questions about mental health and the fact a white officer in uniform is an authority figure who “may symbolize longstanding oppression.” The report suggested that suicide risk assessments “tailored to the cultural backgrounds” of inmates might be more effective than “one-size-fits-all” screenings.

Standards developed by the American Correctional Association call for jail mental health care programs to take into account “gender, cultural and age issues.” But Severson said much more work is needed to address the plight of Native Americans in jail.

Read more on EastOregonian.com.

University of Hawai‘i Cancer Center studies show Native Hawaiian and African American smokers have a higher risk of acquiring lung cancer than smokers of other ethnic/racial groups.

The study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that for the same amount of smoking, Native Hawaiians and African Americans have twice the risk of getting lung cancer than Japanese Americans and Latinxs, with the risk of Caucasian smokers being intermediate. This new analysis of almost 5,000 cases in the Multi-ethnic Cohort Study shows major differences in the risk of lung cancer among smokers from various ethnic/racial groups.

“It is still not clear why these striking ethnic disparities exist in the risk of lung cancer,” said Loic Le Marchand, principal investigator and UH Cancer Center epidemiologist. “By better understanding differences in the way people smoke and the biological changes that lead to lung cancer, we hope to help reduce ethnic/racial disparities in the occurrence of this deadly disease.”

In Hawai‘i, Native Hawaiians have the highest rate of lung cancer compared to other ethnic groups. In 2016, Hawai‘i State Department of Health statistics reported an overall smoking rate in Hawai‘i of 14 percent; however, 27 percent of Native Hawaiians were smokers.

“Native Hawaiians should particularly be advised to not start smoking or to quit if they are still smoking. We know that smoking is a major cause of lung cancer in all populations and that avoiding smoking lowers one’s risk of lung cancer substantially. Smoking causes 90 percent of all lung cancers and increases the risk of many other types of cancer and chronic conditions,” said Le Marchand.

Read more on KHon2.com.

The word “suicide” is charged with emotion. For those whose life has been touched by the suicide of a loved one, it can be a painful reminder of the life, the hopes and the dreams that ended prematurely. And yet for some Latinx families, suicide continues to be a taboo, something that affects only other families, other communities.

As much as suicide may seem like a far-away concept, far from home and far from one’s own community, statistics show a different reality. According to a survey conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 out of every 4 teenage girls and 1 out of every 10 teenage boys in the Latinx community has considered suicide in the year prior to the survey.

Latinx teens are in danger

“Suicide is a public health issue that affects people from every race, every age, every gender and every class,” explains Dr. Barbara Robles-Ramamurthy, child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Long School of Medicine at UT Health in San Antonio. “But Latina teens have suicidal ideations and want to kill themselves more frequently.”

Latina teens in the United States have had higher rates of suicide attempts than Caucasian teens and Latino boys for the past 20 years, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey administered to kids age 10 to 24 by the CDC every other year.

Robles-Ramamurthy explains that when parents have immigrated from other countries but their teenage children were born and raised in the United States, parents tend to maintain their values, customs and ways of life while the teens are surrounded by a new culture. If this disparity is not handled properly, there can be stress, tension and conflict among families, and this can in turn lead children to isolate themselves.

And although the presence of two cultures is more evident in the United States, teens in Latin America are also exposed to two cultures through media, she says.

Accepting cultures and talking about feelings can help prevent suicide

Latinx parents are often afraid their kids will be absorbed by a new culture and will lose touch with their roots, explains Dr. Maria Veronica Svetaz, family physician and director of Clinic Aqui Para Ti, or Here for You, in Minneapolis.

“The balance is in continuously teaching them about our culture, our rituals, our celebrations, our food … while at the same time respecting that they will want to do certain things that align more with the culture in which they are growing up,” Svetaz said.

Robles-Ramamurthy also says that Latinx culture has not fostered mental health education and that the simple act of talking about feelings can help in the prevention of suicide.

“In our culture, we don’t talk about our feelings. We want to hide our family problems, leave them at home; nobody needs to know that we are going through a tough situation,” she said, adding that it is something for everyone to work on and improve.

As parents talk about their feelings, kids will learn the vocabulary to do it themselves.

Another area for improvement: stigma.

“In the Latinx community, we are still very scared of stigma. We don’t want anyone to say bad things about us. We don’t want people saying ‘they’re crazy’ or ‘they’re depressed,’ ” Robles-Ramamurthy said.

Read more on CNN.com.

In just one year, more than 380,000 young people were put on probation — either formally or informally, according to a 2018 report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

It’s a statistic that David Muhammad is dedicated to changing.

A criminal justice and youth development expert, Muhammad currently serves as executive director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform. Muhammad has seen — on repeat — how juvenile probation plays out in the real world. And he’s far from impressed.

The Casey Foundation’s Lisa Hamilton recently spoke with Muhammad about juvenile probation. Their conversation explores why the current approach is broken, why involving families in the solution is essential and what young people really need to thrive.

During the conversation, David Muhammad shares, among other things:

It’s not like those young people don’t need something. They just don’t need a probation officer. They don’t need searches and monitors and surveillance. They need adults in the community who care about them to engage them.”

When we have a young person who does need some involvement in the system, then we need to assess their strengths, assess their needs and then develop a plan with the youth and the family at the table.”

If you’re going to be successful, then you must serve that family because that’s where that young person is living and going back to if they’re in custody.”

Listen to the conversation on AECF.org.

Air Force leaders recently released a memo that hopes to change the culture around suicide prevention after 11 airmen and Air Force civilians died by suicide in the first four weeks of 2019.

“Despite our collective efforts and responsibility for their well-being, suicide remains the leading cause of death for Airmen,” read the memo signed by Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, Chief of Staff David Goldfein, and Chief Master Sergeant Kaleth Wright. “These losses know neither grade, AFSC, status nor unit boundaries. They represent all of us.”

While the Air Force’s suicide rate has remained relatively consistent over the past years, “one suicide is too many,” the memo goes on to say. In an effort to achieve the Air Force’s goal of zero suicides, their next move is a culture shift.

“Suicide prevention is really about a culture shift,” the memo reads. “Culture is our collective beliefs, actions and values; the things each of us say and do contributes to our Air Force culture. We need an Air Force culture where it is more common to seek help than to try to go at it alone.”

Along with the memo, the Air Force released a separate memo that outlined how this culture can be shifted — talk about times you struggled, encourage all Total Force Airmen to seek help early, dispel the myth that seeking help will have a negative career impact. Communicate in a way in which people feel valued, set norms that convey intolerance of any form of harassment, establish the expectation that everyone is responsible for preventing negative outcomes and increasing positive ones.

Read more on ConnectingVets.Radio.com

The Hurricane Harvey Registry revealed something researchers have known for decades: natural disasters contribute to mental health problems. The registry’s recently announced initial findings showed nearly two-thirds of respondents experienced Harvey-related mental health difficulties, particularly symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Similar to an uncovered cough spreading infection, or cigarettes contributing to cancer, health researchers have known for decades that traumatic events, such as catastrophic storms, can put individuals at risk for mental health problems, especially children and those who were previously exposed to traumas. Teams at Texas Children’s Hospital and the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute let state and regional leaders know right after Harvey hit that they should expect rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among the 1.4 million children in the storm’s path to be many times higher than national norms, and rates of severe mental health problems of all types to double.

These effects build for years after a disaster, as secondary adversities begin to accumulate; temporary living arrangements unravel, plans to rebuild go awry, jobs go unfound and children are sent to new schools. This can lead to relationship problems, family conflict and feelings of hopelessness and isolation. This accumulation of adversity can put tens of thousands at risk for mental health problems that will worsen if not quickly treated.

Fortunately, it is also known mental health problems are readily treatable and, in many cases, preventable when the right psychological care is provided as soon as possible after the toxic exposure. After Harvey, our first responders, public and private health systems and government leaders were more prepared than ever to provide such care.

The size of the storm, however, meant more needed to be done. At the local level, Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine responded immediately. The Texas Children’s Trauma and Grief (TAG) Center created the Harvey Resiliency and Recovery Program, dedicated to providing best practice trauma-informed care to youth and families who were adversely impacted by the storm. This initiative also involved providing greater access to mental health care by partnering with Lyft (bringing families without transportation to Texas Children’s), deploying TAG Center therapists onto Texas Children’s Mobile Units, and training community- and school-based clinicians to provide evidence-based intervention in the aftermath of the storm.

At the state level, Gov. Greg Abbott charged several state agencies to form the Hurricane Harvey Task Force on Mental Health Supports. MMHPI provided pro bono support, thanks to the generosity of Texas philanthropists like Maureen and Jim Hackett, Lyda Hill, Charles Butt and the Meadows Family. Philanthropy, particularly support from The Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund, Rebuild Texas, American Red Cross, Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Children’s Health Fund, helped many leading health systems and schools across the Texas Gulf Coast expand capacity. Over 70 state and local agencies came together to help, and TEA worked with HHSC to secure $11 million in federal funds for crisis counseling, serving more than 200,000 in need. 

More work, however, must be done to protect the mental health of children across Texas suffering from other forms of trauma, including bereavement. Researchers at the TAG Center are finding that youth most at risk for PTSD following Harvey had lost a loved one before the storm. Mental illnesses can present in childhood, with 50 percent emerging by age 14, and higher rates among vulnerable, underserved youth who daily are confronted with adversity. There needs to be more done to help these families obtain better access care.

Read more on TribTalk.org.