title: Reconsidering culturally competent approaches to American Indian healing and well-being.
abstract: There is an urgent need to eliminate mental health disparities experienced by American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs). Service providers and researchers often address these disparities by focusing on low rates of participation in Western mental health services. In part, this reflects limited understandings of the sociopolitical and historical context of AI/AN mental health problems. Furthermore, this emphasis fails to recognize the importance of emic understandings of locally resonant coping strategies, healing, and treatment. In this article, we describe (a) a study designed to address these gaps, (b) findings related to the importance of land and place, and (c) a community-university collaboration to translate these findings into meaningful change within one Diné community. Connections to the land were an important cultural strength on which to build efforts to promote mental health. Thus, effective treatment might involve more in-depth understanding of cultural processes through which healing occurs and well-being is maintained.
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA JGoodkin@unm.edu.
authors.forename: Jessica R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Goodkind
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: Beverly
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gorman
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: Julia Meredith
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hess
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: Danielle P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.affiliation: University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: Richard L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Hough
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000072957:Alaska Natives / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice / Q000208:ethnology*; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000523:psychology*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008519:Medicine, Traditional / Q000523:psychology*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D015206:Southwestern United States; D026443:Spiritual Therapies / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aboriginal people, North America; culture / cultural competence; healing; health care disparities; health care, transcultural; mental health and illness; research, collaborative