Programs

(+)Connection is Medicine / The Healing Spirits Program

(+)Connection is Medicine (Navajo Nation study name; +CiM) / The Healing Spirits Program (White Mountain Apache Tribe Study Name; HSP) is aimed at supporting Diné and Apache families who are struggling with mental health due to ongoing stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and returning to in-person learning. The study will leverage evidence-based tools, including

Focus Area: COVID-19 Response & PreventionMental Health Promotion

Associated Location(s): Chinle, AZNavajo NationShiprock, NMTuba City, AZWhite Mountain Apache

Celebrating Life

Project information: Based on a decade of mounting concern about an increasing youth suicide problem, the White Mountain Apache Tribe passed a tribal law mandating that any suicidal incident occurring on tribal lands including suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, suicide completions, and non-suicidal self-injury be recorded into a tribal suicide surveillance system. We have worked with

Focus Area: Mental Health PromotionSuicide Prevention

Associated Location(s): White Mountain ApacheWhiteriver, AZ

CULTURE FORWARD: A Strengths and Culture Based Tool to Protect our Native Youth from Suicide

We are honored to share CULTURE FORWARD: A Strengths and Culture Based Tool to Protect Our Native Youth from Suicide. In partnership with Casey Family Programs, the Johns Hopkins Center for Indigenous Health spent two years listening to Native voices from across Indian Country and scanning Indigenous literature to gather tribally-driven, evidence- and practice-based solutions

Focus Area: Mental Health Promotion

Family Spirit Strengths

Background Mental health and substance misuse pose some of the greatest risks to the health and well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities and result in intergenerational morbidity and mortality. These risks are the legacy of historical trauma and ongoing discrimination. Simultaneously, many AI/AN communities emphasize a holistic view of well-being centered around

Focus Area: Mental Health Promotion

Associated Location(s): Navajo NationShiprock, NM

Hastiin Bidziil (Strong Man)

The Hastiin Bidziil (Strong Man) Intervention is a research study to measure the effectiveness of a secondary prevention program aimed at reducing substance use among Native men ages 18-26 years of age. The Hastiin Bidziil intervention has been adapted and culturally tailored from the Family Spirit Strengths and Common Elements Treatment Approach (FSS/CETA) that incorporates

Focus Area: Cultural StrengthsMental Health PromotionSubstance Use & Prevention

Associated Location(s): Chinle, AZFort Defiance, AZNavajo Nation

Healing Pathways (Anishinaabe Giigewin Miikana)

The Healing Pathways Project is a community-based participatory research study involving 735 American Indian and First Nations youth and their caregivers living in the northern Midwestern United States and Ontario, Canada. The project began in 2002 with collaborations between eight reservation and reserve communities and our university-based research team. As of 2021, we have completed

Focus Area: Mental Health PromotionSubstance Use & PreventionYouth Development

Associated Location(s): Duluth, MN