Suicide among Guaraní Kaiowá and Nandeva youth in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.

Information on morbidity and mortality are critical for developing appropriate prevention and health promotion programs. This study summarizes data on the Guaraní (Kaiowá and Nandeva) communities in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, about which little addressing suicide has been documented. Epidemiologic and anthropological data were used to examine suicidal behavior in these indigenous communities. Several findings in this report about the Guaraní Kaiowá and Nandeva communities were remarkable: the rates of suicide among these communities appear higher than the national average; suicide deaths disproportionately affect adolescents and young adults; and suicide rates among young males appear to be increasing. Data in this report highlight the need for health information data specific to a community in order to identify emerging health problems.

World Health Organization's TEACH-VIP: contributing to capacity building for youth violence prevention.

Youth violence is a major public health problem in every region of the world, yet it is especially prevalent in specific settings. Youth homicide rates exceeding 10.0/100,000 occur most often in countries that are low or middle income, or which are experiencing rapid economic or social change. Particularly in low- and middle-income countries, the capacity to develop and implement the comprehensive, multisectoral strategies to prevent youth violence is only just emerging. The prevention of youth violence requires multidisciplinary approaches and a variety of trained professionals. A public health approach to training in the area of injury prevention focuses on providing professionals and paraprofessionals a common understanding of essential skills and knowledge. One important benefit of this is that it addresses a major gap in current public health training that until recently has devoted relatively little attention to injury prevention. Another benefit is that it allows professionals from a variety of backgrounds to work together more effectively to reduce injury. This article will provide a broad overview of youth violence in low- and middle-income countries and will discuss the existing level of capacity within healthcare and public health sectors for responding to these problems. It concludes with a discussion of next steps for increasing capacity and a profile of the World Health Organization (WHO) training curriculum on injury and violence prevention called TEACH-VIP, an acronym for Training, Education, and Advancing Collaboration in Health on Violence and Injury Prevention, as one important effort undertaken by WHO and global injury partners to build capacity.