Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #107512

Michelle Chino, PhD, UNLV Center for American Indian Research and Education, University of Nevada Las Vegas, School of Public Health, 4505 Maryland Parkway, Box 45-3030, Las Vegas, NV 89154-3030, 702-895-2649, michelle.chino@ccmail.nevada.edu, Carolee Dodge Francis, MA, EdD, Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College, 111 Beartown Road, P.O. Box 519, Baraga, MI 49908, Lemyra DeBruyn, PhD, Native Diabetes Wellness Program, CDC/Division of Diabetes Translation, 1720 Louisiana Boulevard, Suite 312, Albuquerque, NM 87004, and Lynn M. Short, PhD, MPH, Analytic Systems Associates, Inc., 4293 Apollo Court, Suite 202, Snellville, GA 30039.

In an unprecedented effort to address the problem of diabetes in tribal communities, the Diabetes in Tribal Schools (DETS) project brings together a group of eight tribal colleges and three federal agencies (NIH, CDC, IHS) to develop a diabetes-science prevention curriculum for American Indian school children. The curriculum will teach the science of diabetes within a cultural context and build individual, family, and community knowledge and skills for prevention. The project will ultimately create a unique curriculum and a cross-cultural learning environment appropriate for tribal school children and their non-Indian classmates.

The process of developing this curriculum, however, can inform the field as much as the end product will. The project's novel approach incorporates state-of-the-art diabetes science with Native science and culturally responsive teaching techniques. This effort required the project team to go far beyond the bounds of traditional diabetes education to address fundamental issues of tribal culture, history, and health, and the philosophical and educational integration of science, culture, and community. One important addition to the original plan is an ethnographic study to further explore and define culture and context, receptivity, involvement, and potential impact in the pilot communities.

Project participants have learned the importance of acknowledging skills, perspectives, and challenges brought to the project by the science community, by the tribal community and by the school community. The original project plan continues to be modified as project partners acknowledge the need to know more than just diabetes science to create this curriculum “in a good way.”

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, learners will be able to

1)recognize the complexities of developing culturally and community appropriate diabetes prevention education for Native people.
• Identify at least two strategies for ensuring diabetes educational materials and strategies will be integrated into existing community activities.
• Understand the importance of the DETS curriculum as a new approach to diabetes prevention.

Keywords: Diabetes, Cultural Competency

Related Web page: www.haskell.edu/soe/nihdets.htm

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation