Sexually-abused native youth at greater risk of HIV, drug use, suicide: report
By Jeremy Hainsworth, THE CANADIAN PRESS
May 17, 2008
VANCOUVER - A new study suggests sexually abused aboriginal youth in B.C. have a greater chance of contracting HIV and hepatitis C than people in other sectors of the population.
Of the 605 people interviewed in Vancouver, Kamloops and Prince George for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research study, 48 per cent indicated they had been sexually abused at some point.
And, notes the Cedars Project study, this leads to increased incidence of HIV, suicide, drug use and other negative health effects.
Victims were also more likely to be involved in the sex trade, it says.
Historically, the report says, abuse began during the time of colonization and worsened through the residential school system.
Principal investigator Dr. Patricia Spittal says one of the most troubling findings is the average age of first sexual abuse - six.
But, said Chief Mabel Louie of the Stellaten First Nation in Northern B.C., there is now an increased interest in traditional methods of child protection and ceremonial rites.
"Our culture is medicine and our kinship systems have been amazingly resilient despite hundreds of years of colonial reality," Louie said in a news release.
The study data shows that participants who reported sexual abuse, compared with those who did not, were twice as likely to be HIV-positive, to have lived on the street and to have attempted suicide.
They were also 1.8 times more likely to have been in the sex trade and to have had more than 20 sexual partners in their lifetime.
Chief Wayne Christian of the Splatsin Secwepemc Nation said the study confirms that sexual abuse is one of the devastating outcomes of colonization.
"We witnessed our members return to our communities from residential schools and inflict upon their own children what they learned about control and abuse," Christian said. "We've lived in denial for long enough and it's high time for a response."
Spittal said sexual abuse was rarely found in aboriginal communities prior to colonization and the founding of the residential school system.
"Traditional justice systems dealt harshly with offenders," she said.
And Premier Gordon Campbell agrees that the residential school system was a "disaster."
Thousands of former students say they suffered physical, sexual and psychological abuse while attending the schools.
They were run by churches and funded by Ottawa from the 1870s until the mid-1970s.
"We have to start to build both respect and understanding of what took place," Campbell said. "It's not acceptable today."
But he says fixing the problems will take a lot of work and persistence.
"Anyone who thinks that we can solve what is effectively a generational program overnight is mistaken," Campbell said.
He said the government will continue to work with First Nations elders in finding solutions.
Vancouver Native Health Society executive director Lou Demerais is onside.
"While the province needs to think outside of the box when it comes to the treatment and healing of our communities, the solutions must come from us," Demerais said. "All of the involved ministries can have a real impact and more effectively use existing resources simply by becoming more flexible in their policies and programming."
Subjects were interviewed between October 2003 and April 2005. Sixty-nine per cent of the women and 31 per cent of the men said they had experienced sexual abuse.
Twenty-seven per cent said they had never told anyone about the abuse prior to the study and 65 per cent said they had never received counselling after the abuse.
Forty-eight per cent of the participants who had been sexually abused as children said they have experienced sexual abuse again by other people later in life.
By Jeremy Hainsworth, THE CANADIAN PRESS
May 17, 2008
VANCOUVER - A new study suggests sexually abused aboriginal youth in B.C. have a greater chance of contracting HIV and hepatitis C than people in other sectors of the population.
Of the 605 people interviewed in Vancouver, Kamloops and Prince George for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research study, 48 per cent indicated they had been sexually abused at some point.
And, notes the Cedars Project study, this leads to increased incidence of HIV, suicide, drug use and other negative health effects.
Victims were also more likely to be involved in the sex trade, it says.
Historically, the report says, abuse began during the time of colonization and worsened through the residential school system.
Principal investigator Dr. Patricia Spittal says one of the most troubling findings is the average age of first sexual abuse - six.
But, said Chief Mabel Louie of the Stellaten First Nation in Northern B.C., there is now an increased interest in traditional methods of child protection and ceremonial rites.
"Our culture is medicine and our kinship systems have been amazingly resilient despite hundreds of years of colonial reality," Louie said in a news release.
The study data shows that participants who reported sexual abuse, compared with those who did not, were twice as likely to be HIV-positive, to have lived on the street and to have attempted suicide.
They were also 1.8 times more likely to have been in the sex trade and to have had more than 20 sexual partners in their lifetime.
Chief Wayne Christian of the Splatsin Secwepemc Nation said the study confirms that sexual abuse is one of the devastating outcomes of colonization.
"We witnessed our members return to our communities from residential schools and inflict upon their own children what they learned about control and abuse," Christian said. "We've lived in denial for long enough and it's high time for a response."
Spittal said sexual abuse was rarely found in aboriginal communities prior to colonization and the founding of the residential school system.
"Traditional justice systems dealt harshly with offenders," she said.
And Premier Gordon Campbell agrees that the residential school system was a "disaster."
Thousands of former students say they suffered physical, sexual and psychological abuse while attending the schools.
They were run by churches and funded by Ottawa from the 1870s until the mid-1970s.
"We have to start to build both respect and understanding of what took place," Campbell said. "It's not acceptable today."
But he says fixing the problems will take a lot of work and persistence.
"Anyone who thinks that we can solve what is effectively a generational program overnight is mistaken," Campbell said.
He said the government will continue to work with First Nations elders in finding solutions.
Vancouver Native Health Society executive director Lou Demerais is onside.
"While the province needs to think outside of the box when it comes to the treatment and healing of our communities, the solutions must come from us," Demerais said. "All of the involved ministries can have a real impact and more effectively use existing resources simply by becoming more flexible in their policies and programming."
Subjects were interviewed between October 2003 and April 2005. Sixty-nine per cent of the women and 31 per cent of the men said they had experienced sexual abuse.
Twenty-seven per cent said they had never told anyone about the abuse prior to the study and 65 per cent said they had never received counselling after the abuse.
Forty-eight per cent of the participants who had been sexually abused as children said they have experienced sexual abuse again by other people later in life.
