Zero Suicide is a framework to support suicide-safer care in health and behavioral health care systems. In the past ten years, many studies have shown its effectiveness in reducing suicide deaths across diverse health systems. However, when health and behavioral health care systems in Indian Country have attempted to employ the framework, there are often challenges related to culture, language, or concepts of what healing and wellness may mean to the Tribe or to the community, as well as differences in resources and views of standardized measurement and data gathering. Adding to the challenges of implementing Zero Suicide as a framework in Indian Country are historical, intergenerational, and modern-day trauma and their impact on the health and well-being of Indigenous people. Therefore, a combination of the western ways and concepts outlined in the Zero Suicide framework and the use of Traditional Healers and medicines may prove more effective when working with Indigenous people and communities, especially if the Tribe or community is more traditional in their ways.
