News article: Alaska’s social indicators continue to decline
State has among the highest rates of suicide, rape, alcoholism, and illegal drug use
By: Alaska Humanity News
New reports from government agencies indicate that rape and prison incarceration rates in Alaska, already among the highest in the United States, continue to increase. Alaska is also maintaining its position as the state with the highest per capita rate of alcoholism and illegal drug use.
The suicide rate for Alaskans remains among the highest in the United States, at 19.6 per 100,000, according to a report published by the Alaska Statewide Suicide Prevention Council in April, 2005. This is nearly twice the incidence of suicide in the rest of the United States. The report indicates that suicide rates in villages are substantially greater than in urban areas, but that the suicide rate in Anchorage is 50 percent higher than the U.S. average.
Alaska had the highest suicide rate in the nation in 2000, when 135 people took their lives. Currently the per capital suicide rate in Nevada slightly surpasses that of Alaska. The teen suicide rate in Alaska is 35.1 per 100,000.
The University of Alaska Justice Center reports that Alaska has the highest rate of forcible rape, and that Anchorage had the second highest rate in U.S. metropolitan areas. Rapes occur at a rate of 79.5 per 100,000 in Alaska, and 82.01 in Anchorage, compared with an average rate in the United Sates of 39.95 per 100,000. Alaska’s rape rate is 2.4 times the national average.
Recent trends in forcible rape indicate that the situation is getting worse. The rate of forcible rape has increased by 27% in the past six years, according to a report published on a UAA Justice Center website. During this period the rate has declined by 3 percent in the United States.
A report released on April 23 by the U.S. Bureau of Justice indicates that the number of people held in United States and Alaska prisons continues to increase. The U.S. incarceration rate was already the highest in the world. According to the report, the number of prisoners in Alaska increased from 4,431 in 2003 to 4,515 in 2004, a 1.9% increase. There are a total of 2.1 million people in American jails, one in every 138 U.S. residents, an increase of 1%.
The U.S. crime rate has fallen over the past decade, but the crime rate for the State of Alaska is 5.1% higher than the national average. There are 9,900 adults under correctional supervision (prisons, jails, probation, and parole) in Alaska
There are many possible causes of the long-term problems that afflict Alaskans. A source who works within an Anchorage substance abuse program, and wished to remain anonymous, cites several contributing factors. She says Alaska’s famously long winters coupled with the isolation can be causes. We are isolated not only due to weather, which keeps us indoors much of the winter, but also travel wise, by being disconnected from the rest of the country or by remaining isolated in smaller village communities. She also cites a lack of resources in our communities. Services offered for treatment are costly and limited as well as having long waiting lists. People call for help while they are in crisis and most likely they will have to wait more than two months just to get into a program. By that time they may have given up on treatment altogether. Troubled teens are often sent out of state for treatment since we cannot accommodate them here at home. When single mothers finally do get into a program, there is no child care and little if any help with transportation. There is also the general attitude of shame caused by the community, who look down upon people with problems; this may prevent people from seeking any help at all. Our source formerly worked in a Wisconsin community of 230,000 people, and says the difference in service availability and attitude was phenomenal. Finally, she says we lack good prevention programs. Attacking problems before they get started, by educating our youth, is the key to prevention.
Laura Schue, a mental health clinician who works in the Alaska substance abuse community, currently counsels children whose families are undergoing treatment. She said, “substance use tends to be related to deeper emotional issues, particularly for Alaskan natives who have a historical trauma from first contact with American settlers. Everyone not native to Alaska is transplanted which means separation of family.” She also cites the isolation and darkness of Alaskan winters and says healing needs to be holistic, and that the whole person should be treated. This includes physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of life.
Interview with Father Oleksa
Father Michael Oleksa is dean of St. Innocent Orthodox Cathedral in Anchorage, Alaska. His pastoral experience has been mostly in villages and in Native communities within cities.
Humanity News: What do you think is the cause of the high levels of violence and low levels of mental health of Alaskans?
Michael Oleksa: The underlying reason for this kind of anti-social and self-destructive behavior comes out of about a century of cultural disruption. Two generations ago the elders were confused and frustrated vis-à-vis the dominant culture. The education of their children had been taken pretty much out of their hands. The next generation are the products of boarding schools and forced acculturation, which has left them angry to some extent, but mostly guilt-ridden and greed-ridden. They have been placed in the untenable position of having to choose between their own culture and the dominant one. The anger comes out more in the third generation.
So you have the first generation confused and frustrated; the next generation bitter, angry, but mostly guilt-ridden; and then the next generation is acting this out, though they keep it under control most of the time. When you apply drugs and especially alcohol to all this you end up with the outbreak of all these problems you’ve listed.
The older generation was able to deal with these problems better because they had a solid spiritual foundation out of which they operated, a spiritual core which provided them with ballast, like the keel of a boat. There is a kind of spiritual malaise. There’s a lack of spiritual depth, so that people are adrift, and so easily fall into unhealthy practices and lifestyles.
Global Social Indicators
F.B.I. statistics place the U.S. with the highest violent crime rate in the world.
Mental health
450 million people worldwide are affected by mental, neurological or behavioral problems at any time. (World Health Organization)
Suicide
According to WHO estimates, in the year 2000, approximately one million people died from suicide, and 10 to 20 times more people attempted suicide worldwide. More people are dying from suicide than in all of the several armed conflicts around the world and, in many places, about the same or more than those dying from traffic accidents.
Suicide rates are very high in Alaska - but not as high as some European countries. In Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, the highest suicide rates are reported for both men and women. The Eastern Mediterranean Region and Central Asian republics have the lowest suicide rates.
Rape
The recently published report from the United Nations Population Fund on the State of the World Population 2000 and other data make it clear that the incidence of rape and other forms of sexual violence is increasing worldwide. (World Health Organization.)
One in five women will be a victim of rape or attempted rape in her lifetime
In Turkey 35.6% of women have experienced marital rape sometimes and 16.3% often (surveys published in 2000, Women and sexuality in Muslim societies, WWHR Publications: Istanbul, 2000).
[Graphs not included online.]