Native American Children and Youth Well-Being Indicators

More documents

Recommendations

Info

In another article in the same journal, two notedAmerican Indian scholars, Lewis and Deer (1980)describe Native American strengths this way:The strength that comes from enduring isbecoming the cohesive force of today. Thelessons taught by the elders—love for theland, reverence for nature, respect for theCreator, respect for tribal cohesiveness—are even more relevant today. (p. 522)A more current publication by Cross, Earle,Echo-Hawk, and Mannes (2000) examines fivetribal models of mental health care that focus ondeveloping the strengths of American Indian children,youth, families, and communities. The literaturereview is organized using the “relationalworldview model” (Cross, 1995). This modelorganizes the world into four quadrants that mustcome into balance in tribal cultures. The fourquadrants consist of context, mind, body, andspirit, and the model is a Native American view oflife and the integration of its different components.Cross et al. (2000) described the relationalworldview model as:intuitive, non-time oriented and fluid.Balance and harmony in relationships isthe driving principle of this thought system,along with the interplay of spiritualforces. The relational worldview sees life interms of harmonious relationships; healthor wellness is achieved by maintaining balanceamong the many interrelating factorsin one’s circle of life. Every event relates toall other events regardless of time, spaceor physical existence. Health exists onlywhen all elements are in balance or harmony.(p. 8)This view of life is a strength-producing and illness-preventingway of acting, thinking, feeling,and being spiritual with the earth and its beings.Although each tribe has its own worldview andits own model for thinking, behaving, feeling, andbeing spiritual, this model provides overall directionfor tribes.Examples of tribal worldviews include belief andpractice of the principles of the “Medicine Wheel”in the Lakota Nation. Another example is theNavajo Nation, which believes and practices theK’e philosophy. “K’e” can be interpreted as, “Webelieve that every family has the strength andwisdom to walk in beauty” (Cross et al., 2000,p. 31). These two examples of tribal strengthfocusedprograms provide practitioners withmodels expressing balance and recognition ofthe four forces discussed in the relationalworldview.In their report, Cross et al. (2000) also discussedfive tribal programs focusing on their own tribalworldviews as their program philosophy. Theyalso utilized their own community and individualstrengths as the basis of mental health servicesto their tribes. The five projects are the K’eProject (Navajo); Kmihqitahasultipon (WeRemember), Indian Township, Maine; the SacredChild Project, serving four tribes in North Dakota;16
Eagle’s Wings, the Wind River Reservation servingthe Northern Arapaho, Wyoming; and MnoBmaadzid Endaad (Be in Good Health in His[and/or Her] House) Chippewa, Michigan.These programs offer examples of how a morestrengths-oriented perspective may be implementedthrough building on tribal strengths toprovide mental health and human social services.The evaluation process consists of using the fourquadrants (context, mind, body, and spirit) as ameans of obtaining well-being factors from eachprogram. For example, within context theseorganizations found the use of family and extendedfamily as an important factor; within mind,they found the use of culturally-specificapproaches and methods that build up a senseof dignity and strength; within body, they foundimportance of alcohol-free and drug-free events;and within spirit, they found use of traditionalteachings that describe wellness, balance, andharmony as factors to promote the health, balance,and well-being of their members (Cross etal., 2000). Use of these four quadrants demonstratedthe existence of tribal strengths in allaspects of life.The Circles of Care Evaluation TechnicalAssistance Center (National Center for AmericanIndian and Alaska Native Mental HealthResearch, University of Colorado Health andSciences Center, Denver) developed a list ofstrengths-based assessment approaches inworking with their project grantees. The followingis a list of six resiliency and community strengthsfrom a tribal perspective: (1) maintenance of cultureindicated by factors like number of tribalmembers who speak their native language, continuedavailability and use of ceremonies, [residingin] extended families and kin network, [participatingin] social gatherings, [participating in] subsistence[activities]; (2) opportunity structuressuch as singing and drumming; (3) communitystrengths such as nurturing and protection ofchildren and youth and [promoting positive] attitudestowards helping kids and families in need;(4) strength of interpersonal relationships; (5)graduation rates; and (6) reading skills. (Pam LeMaster, University of Colorado Health andScience Center, personal communication,August 21, 2002).In the System of Care models, many tribal programssought to incorporate strengths-basedassessment approaches, and the tribes evaluatedmany measurement instruments for use intheir communities. The unit of attention in theseinstruments is the family and/or the child. Thefollowing list 8 of instruments has both deficitsand strengths listed as variables. Some of themeasurement instruments were identified forutilization in the tribal programs that were partof the evaluation:17
Page 3 and 4: ContentsAbstract 5Executive Summary
Page 8 and 9: Literature ReviewTwo major viewpoin
Page 10 and 11: increasing the well-being of all ch
Page 12 and 13: Saleebey (1997) later defined the t
Page 14 and 15: empower ourselves not to be seen as
Page 18 and 19: 1. Behavioral and Emotional Rating
Page 20: Proposed Model to CompareHuman Well
Page 23 and 24: FIGURE 1. Two Views of Human Well-B
Page 25 and 26: eservation, is an enrolled member o
Page 27 and 28: Discussion of SampleThe majority of
Page 29 and 30: TABLE 1. NATIVE AMERICAN STRENGTHS
Page 31 and 32: FIGURE 5. THEMES OF NATIVE AMERICAN
Page 33 and 34: the most important strengths, the r
Page 35 and 36: FIGURE 7. DOMAINS AND SUGGESTED BEH
Page 37 and 38: Comparison With Other FrameworksCom
Page 39 and 40: Comparison 2The Five Life Domains i
Page 41 and 42: Table 4 provides an analysis of the
Page 43 and 44: RecommendationsResearchResearch stu
Page 45 and 46: Policy change usually occurs after
Page 47 and 48: ConclusionThis project started beca
Page 49 and 50: Cowger, C. D. (1994). Assessing cli
Page 51 and 52: Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content an
Page 53 and 54: APPENDIX A: MATRIX WITH AUTHORS AND
Page 55 and 56: Medill, A. (2000, Fall). Reflection
Page 57 and 58: APPENDIX C: SEARCH INSTITUTE’S EX

Native American Children and Youth Well-Being Indicators

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?