Petter Stoor

Jon Petter Stoor, Pikku-Nilsá Ánde Biehtár, is a Sámi and 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. 

My research interests concern Sámi health, with main focus on mental health, suicide and prevention of suicide among Sámi, in Norway and Sweden. I have also a great interest for Indigenous peoples health in the Arctic. 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. At present, I work mostly with establishing and working within the research group Lávvuo. 

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 ethical guidelines in Sámi health research in Norway. I represented Sweden in the Fulbright Arctic Initiative, during 2018-19. As a Fulbright scholar I collaborated on suicide prevention among Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, with the Centre for Alaska Native health research, University of Alaska - Fairbanks (UAF), AK, US. I have also been engaged in other international suicide prevention projects for Indigenous peoples in the Arctic, through the Arctic council working group for sustainable development (SDWG), and I am a prior board member of the International Union for Circumpolar Health. 

During 2022-23 my main research tasks included to produce reports and articles on the health of the Sámi people in Sweden, based on the SámiHET questionnaire study that we carried out during spring 2021, supported by the Sámi parliament in Sweden and the Public Health Agency of Sweden. One aspect of the work is my post-doc project focusing on the health of young Sámi, in collaboration with Sáminuorra (externally funded by the Swedish research council for Health, Working Life and Welfare - Forte). 

As an Indigenous health researcher i follow the motto "nothing for us, without us". In paralell to ongoing collaborations with the Sámi parliaments in Norway and Sweden i therefore also work as close as possible with Sámi Non-governmental organisations (NGOs). These include the Sáminuorra (Sámi youth organisation in Sweden), the Sámiid Riikasearvi (the National Association of Sámi in Sweden) and the international Saami Council. 

Other on-going duties include being a substitute member of the Expert ethical review board for Sámi health research in Norway and as a commissioner in the "Lancet commission on Suicide and Self-harm" and the "Lancet commission on Arctic Health".

During autumn 2021 i started teaching Sámi health at the medical programme (expanding to the psychologists' programme autumn 2022), and during autumn 2022 we started Sweden's first university course on Sámi and Indigenous health, which I planned and am responsible course teacher for.