Preventive health programs among Sami adolescents in a Sami community.

Abstract

The town of Karasjok had during the eighties one of the highest prevalence of suicide among young men with a cluster of deaths in 1987 and 1988. This situation highlighted the life situation of the Sami adolescents in this area and a special suicide prevention program was established. Health and social workers from the primary health care in the town, the psychiatric outpatient clinics, the school, the church among others, worked together in an emergency interventional service for suicidal patients and postventional for the survival relatives and friends. In addition the preventive aspects of health services for the youth were focused. Firmer health services in the primary care in the town were reorganized to recognize and treat children and adolescents with special problems and needs. The school nurses got a central role in the schools available for children and teachers both in treatment, counselling and teaching. A special health service for youth, "the Youth office," was established one evening in the week staffed with a doctor and a nurse. All consultations are free and to make a data is not necessary. Everyone who wants a consultation gets it on the same evening. The Youth office runs evenings with films and discussions on special topics which the youth themselves want to learn more about as contraceptives, AIDS, abortion, friendship, the relationship between a boy and a girl and so on. This offer is very popular, but mostly among girls. The staff also organizes courses for other professionals in cooperation with the youth.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)