Background
Youth nationwide face a growing mental health crisis. This crisis is even more acute in Indigenous youth, who face higher rates of depression, anxiety, substance misuse, and suicide, as well as an increased risk for school absenteeism and dropout compared to their White peers. To address these challenges, we developed a kinship navigator intervention in collaboration with the Chinle community. Roundtable discussions were held with families, youth, health professionals, and school personnel. The discussions informed a model of change for the intervention. The intervention itself will be delivered by paraprofessional kinship navigators from the local community and integrates Indigenous strengths and promotes connections to care for youth with mental and behavioral health challenges.
Next Steps for Project MOSAIC
Our next step is to pilot this intervention with up to 15 Navajo families, measuring outcomes such as engagement with mental or behavioral health services, feelings of connectedness, and overall wellness. If acceptable and feasible, we then hope to obtain additional funding to test the intervention in a larger scale study.
Study Contact
For any questions, please contact our co-Directors Kristin Mitchell, MA at kmitch51@jhu.edu or Emily Haroz, PhD at eharoz1@jhu.edu.
This work is funded by George Siber and the Bloomberg American Health Initiative.