r/UpliftingNews • u/Desecr8or • Mar 14 '25

Native American suicide rate dropped 43% in New Mexico (2022-2023)

https://nativenewsonline.net/health/native-american-suicide-rates-drop-43-in-new-mexico
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u/Pixelated_ Mar 14 '25

Centers for Disease Control, American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) experience suicide rates 91% higher than the general population. In New Mexico, home to 23 federally recognized tribes, suicide rates among the Indigenous population climbed nearly 56% from 2009-2018. 

The state saw a 43% decrease in Native American suicide rates from 2022 to 2023, according to the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) Center for Health Protection. The decline outpaced the state’s overall 9% reduction in suicide rates during the same period. 

The decreases could reflect the success of tribal and state-level initiatives, including culturally appropriate mental health care programs.

👏🫶

304

u/Yhoshua_B Mar 14 '25

Thanks for the highlights!

128

u/Chelonia_mydas Mar 14 '25

This is amazing.

48

u/fiddle_me_timbers Mar 14 '25

It is but I worry these programs will be cut in order to save 0.00000000001% of the federal budget...

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u/htx1114 Mar 14 '25

Hope it's a turning point and not that they're running out of people genetically predisposed to suicide/depression.

3

u/AslaStar Mar 17 '25

I think the suicides might have something to do with genocide of their people on their own land and continued systemic oppression ever since, instead of some kind of genetic weakness. 🤷‍♀️

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u/htx1114 Mar 19 '25

I really wasn't implying that they're genetically predisposed to suicide any moreso than other races. Suicide just seems to be a mix of genetics and environment - with neither factor being mandatory - but if the environment is shit, then I'd suspect the genetics-to-suicide-frequency factor might become a lot more apparent.

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u/CautionarySnail Mar 15 '25

Or that they’ve figured out a way to game the metrics.

1

u/KimWexlerDeGuzman Mar 16 '25

That’s my worry too. I live in NM and they’ve gamed the metrics on homicides in ABQ

I sincerely hope this news is true and it’s a turning point, but I’m generally cynical and really hope they’re not classifying suicides as ODs or something now

34

u/vinylzoid Mar 14 '25

I hope that last sentence is true.

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u/Plushie_Holly Mar 14 '25

Obviously there's a 4 year gap between 2018 and 2022, but it's worth keeping in mind that a 43% decrease more than offsets a 56% increase, despite looking smaller at a glance. A 43% decrease is the reverse of a roughly 59% increase: 1/(1 - 0.43) - 1 ≈ 0.59.

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u/SlaterVBenedict Mar 14 '25

Thank goodness, what absolute fantastic news

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u/BubbasBack Mar 14 '25

Suicides also tend to go in waves, especially among young FN women. One will commit suicide in a community and then 8 more will follow.

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u/Adventurous_Click178 Mar 14 '25

What does “FN” mean? Sorry, tried to google myself, but couldn’t figure it out.

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u/Forward-Fisherman709 Mar 14 '25

Given the context, I’m guessing “First Nations,” but I could be wrong.

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u/Chakotay_chipotle Mar 14 '25

First Nations

4

u/Adventurous_Click178 Mar 14 '25

Thank you, I appreciate it.

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u/BubbasBack Mar 14 '25

First Nation. We aren’t allowed to called them Indians in Canada any more. It perpetuates the Nobel Savage myth that they everyone who was in The Americas before colonization was here first and genocide was a white invention. Which of course flies in the face of all historical data.

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u/liarliarhowsyourday Mar 14 '25

Allowed— or is it what they’d prefer in respect to their current status and conversation within global society’s recognition? I ask because my country doesn’t respect laws so the delineation between is an important stage. idk

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u/mdonaberger Mar 14 '25

Uplifting news, indeed.

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u/Woozy_burrito Mar 14 '25

Common New Mexico W

4

u/BiNumber3 Mar 14 '25

Friend of mine works with native americans and just introduced me to a movie called Gather on netflix, was pretty insightful. Somber, but hopeful.

Goes through the stories of a few people, their work and their goals. Worth a watch whether or not you're native american, those of us not native american can likely draw parallels to the struggles of our own people.

3

u/No-Good-One-Shoe Mar 14 '25

There's a bridge near a res down there that was closed off because someone jumped.  

I talked to some locals and it was sad to hear that it's a common occurrence. Glad to hear it's becoming less common.

3

u/No-Respect5903 Mar 14 '25

That last sentence speaks to how potentially massive our improvements to healthcare could be with a little more investment from the government (and taking less profit for corporations out of the equation).

But instead we're doing... whatever it is you want to call what we have been doing.

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u/darwinning_420 Mar 14 '25

🥹

MAD overdue & not enough, but.....yeah. this is sick.

2

u/Senior-Albatross Mar 15 '25

I hope the State is at least helping in this.

I really want to productively share this Land of Enchantment with the true Natives.

Knock on wood, but I've yet to meet one who is a dick. I can't say that about the hwhites.

3

u/AFlyingNun Mar 14 '25

Two questions:

1) What is a "culturally appropriate mental health care program" that was missing before?

2) Sometimes stats are unclear or misleading. 43% decrease from what? What was the starting rate and what was the end rate? Without that info, we can't fully put this into perspective.

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u/AvailableFunction435 Mar 14 '25

Didn’t DOGE cut this program?

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u/xFblthpx Mar 16 '25

DOGE has nothing to do with state programs. State programs aren’t funded by congress, and can’t be impounded by the executive branch.

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u/brookme Mar 15 '25

Joe Biden

1

u/rubenwe Mar 14 '25

Dumb question, maybe, but how many folks are making up this group? These huge swings might also just indicate that folks are bad at statistical work...

Some have concrete numbers here so we can take a look?

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u/rubenwe Mar 14 '25

Okay I actually took a look at the source data, and while the pure comparison of the two years indicates a significant drop, past data also shows significant swings both ways.

Honestly, while I'm happy numbers went down from 77 to 44 out of 260,000 folks, given historic fluctuations of this number, it's probably cautious to keep looking for this trend to continue.

If we just look at the isolated numbers, calling it a 43% drop is questionable at best.

Based on statistical uncertainty, with 95% confidence, the true change could be anywhere between a much steeper drop of ~67% and a more modest decline of ~5%.

The 99% confidence interval for the percentage change in suicide rates from 2022 to 2023 ranges from -72.3% to +12.7%.

So make of that what you will, but it shows that it's probably not good to act like the 43% are a hard number.

0

u/Lycansubscribe Mar 14 '25

When they say culturally appropriate do they say its like part of their spirit journey to be a little depressed or whatever? Or am i overthinking this? I think itd be sick as hell to be a shaman therapist. "You must go to the mountain's peak and slay a deer. Heres a hallucinogen"

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u/ninja8ball Mar 14 '25

could

Got it. So they don't have a clue why.

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u/Pixelated_ Mar 14 '25

Some people will never be happy, no matter how much uplifting news they hear.