Petter Stoor

I am Jon Petter Stoor, Pikku-Nilsá Ánde Biehtár, a Sámi/Swedish licensed clinical psychologist and researcher (PhD) born and raised in the city of Giron/Kiruna and Laeváš Sámi reindeer herding community in Arctic Sweden. I live in Ubmeje/Umeå, Sweden, and am a proud father of two girls.

My research interests mainly concern Sámi health, with main focus on mental health, suicide and prevention of suicide among Sámi, particularly men, in Norway and Sweden. I have also a great interest for Indigenous peoples health in the Arctic, and mens' health in general. In december 2020 I defended my PhD dissertation "Suicide among Sámi – Cultural meanings of suicide and interventions for suicide prevention in Nordic parts of Sápmi", at the Centre for Sámi Health Research, Department of Community Medicine, UiT - the Arctic University of Norway. 

In recent years I have worked on psychosocial health issues on behalf of the Sámi Parliament in Sweden and written a plan for suicide prevention among Sámi, on behalf of SANKS and the Saami Council. In 2017-18 I was an appointed member of the commision that developed a proposal for ethical guidelines in Sámi health research in Norway. Our proposal has since been accepted and turned into policy, and since august 2020 I am a substitute member of the Expert ethical review board for Sámi health research in Norway.  

I have also been engaged in international suicide prevention projects for Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, through the Arctic councils work group for sustainable development (SDWG), and I am a prior board member of the International Union for Circumpolar Health. 

I was a Fulbright Arctic Scholar during 2018-19 in the thematic group of resilient communities within the Fulbright Arctic Initiative, representing Sweden. As a Fulbright scholar I collaborated with the Centre for Alaska Native health research, University of Alaska - Fairbanks (UAF), AK, US.

As a researcher in the field of Indigenous peoples health, I am much aware of the need for collaboration with the Indigenous peoples, and besides working with the Sámi parliaments in Norway and Sweden, I try to collaborate as much as possible with Sámi non-governmental organisations, such as the Sáminuorra (Sámi youth organisation in Sweden), the Sámiid Riikasearvi (the National Association of Sámi in Sweden) and the international Saami Council. 

My main position is a as researcher at EpiGH, UmU - but I have also a smaller position (20%) as a researcher at the Centre for Sámi Health Research, Department of Community Medicine, UiT - the Arctic University of Norway.

During 2021 I will mainly work on the following assignments:

• "Mens' sexual and reproductive health", where me and collegues at EpiGH study the health care systems' experiences, resources and organisation in relation to mens' sexual and reproductive health, as commissioned by the Public Health Agency of Sweden. My role mainly concerns case-studies in Västerbotten, Stockholm and online. A report will be available in march 2021.
• Sámi health, where Miguel San Sebastián and myself lead several studies on Sámi health. The most central of these are commissioned by the Sámi Parliament in Sweden (Sámediggi) and the Public Health Agency of Sweden. Within those projects we will produce a Sámi background report (available in september 2021) to the Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, supporting the new Swedish plan for mental health and suicide prevention. Furthermore, we will produce a report on public health among Sámi in Sweden (available in december 2021) and another on Covid-19 among Sámi (available in 2022). The empirical data for these reports will be drawn from a large scale health quiestionnare conducted among Sámi in Sweden during spring 2021, as well as register-based studies where we collaborate within the Umeå SIMSAM Lab. In the long term, we expect that some of these data will be possible to compare with data from the SAMINOR-studies in Norway. The Covid-related study is also connected to a larger Arctic project at the Arctic Council's Sustainable development working group (SDWG)
• I am also a commissioner in two international Lancet-commissions, where reports will be made available in 2021/2022. These concern Health in the Arctic, and suicide and suicidality globally.

My teaching assignments are limited during 2021, but I teach mostly on Indigenous peoples' Health, Sámi health, ethics in Sámi health research, as well as in qualitative research methods - mainly on master level courses at EpiGH and doctoral courses at the Medical Faculty.