Challenges and concerns in assisting indigenous people with suicide attempts

Abstract

Abstract There has been an alarming rise in suicide attempts among indigenous people in Brazil leading to national concerns about the provision of psychosocial care and professional support. In this study, we make an attempt to understand the perspectives of professionals in assisting indigenous people from a specific group, the Iny, and identify the specific challenges of addressing issues through the mental health care system, related specifically to suicide prevention. Using a qualitative approach with participant observation and semi-structured interviews, the research included indigenous and their families assisted by three public institutions, and the professionals that work in the public psychosocial assistance. For this paper we examined the tensions, conflicts and challenges of the health care professionals at one of these institutions, a Psychosocial Care Center in the state of Goiás/Brazil. For the analysis of data, a sociocultural protocol was built to identify dialogical tensions between the different thematic-fields of mental health care. The findings reveal that the theme of suicide was an important concern in the daily work with the community, but there were significant issues related to the assumptions, methodology and meaning of care between the professionals and the community on account of which the objective of the programme to address suicide attempts had not been effective or successful. The discussion of the results raises several critical questions about possible contributions of dialogical cultural psychology in the context of indigenous health, and also has important implications for the global issue of well-being of indigenous people.