183893 Building evidence for cultural interventions to prevent youth substance abuse and suicide risk: The Ellangneq studies

Monday, October 27, 2008

Gerald Mohatt, EdD , Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR), University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
Jim Allen, PhD , Department of Psychology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
Gunnaer Ebbesson, LPC MAC , Center for Alaska Native Health Research, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
Debbie Alstrom , Center for Alaska Native Health Research, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
The Ellangneq study is designed to address the paucity of evidence on what are effective interventions with American Indian or Alaska Native youth to address substance abuse and suicide risk (Gone, 2007). Our team of community and university researchers will present a study based upon 15 years community based participatory research (CBPR) with Alaska Native communities to identify an indigenous model of protection from substance abuse. We will describe how we partnered with Native communities to operationalize protective factors from substance abuse and suicide into a cultural intervention for Native youth. We will describe the intervention and present outcome results from two rural Alaska Native communities. This is a first step in developing an evidence based cultural intervention for Native youth.

Learning Objectives:
1. Demonstrate the development of cultural theory for prevention of a major health disparity of Alaska Natives. 2. Develop skills in mobilizing community engagement in the development of and ownership of a research program on a culturally based prevention. 3. Learn about the design and the results of a culturally grounded prevention program with youth participants in two matched Native communities in building protective factors.

Keywords: Alaska Natives, Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Faculty/Presenter
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.