1 Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
2 School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington-Bothell, Bothell, WA, USA.
3 Memory Keepers Medical Discovery Team - American and Rural Health Equity, Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus, Duluth, MN, USA.
4 Center for Alaska Native Health Research, Institute for Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA.
5 RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, USA.
6 Department of Sociology, School of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
7 Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
8 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
9 Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
10 Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
11 Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
12 Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
13 Department of Psychology and Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse, and Addictions, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.
14 Department of Family Medicine and Biobehavioral Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth Campus, Duluth, MN, USA.

Substance Use Research with Indigenous Communities: Exploring and Extending Foundational Principles of Community Psychology.

Am J Community Psychol. 2019 Jul 31;:

Authors: Wendt DC, Hartmann WE, Allen J, Burack JA, Charles B, D'Amico EJ, Dell CA, Dickerson DL, Donovan DM, Gone JP, O'Connor RM, Radin SM, Rasmus SM, Venner KL, Walls ML

Abstract

Many Indigenous communities are concerned with substance use (SU) problems and eager to advance effective solutions for their prevention and treatment. Yet these communities also are concerned about the perpetuation of colonizing, disorder-focused, stigmatizing approaches to mental health, and social narratives related to SU problems. Foundational principles of community psychology-ecological perspectives, empowerment, sociocultural competence, community inclusion and partnership, and reflective practice-provide useful frameworks for informing ethical community-based research pertaining to SU problems conducted with and by Indigenous communities. These principles are explored and extended for Indigenous community contexts through themes generated from seven collaborative studies focused on understanding, preventing, and treating SU problems. These studies are generated from research teams working with Indigenous communities across the United States and Canada-inclusive of urban, rural, and reservation/reserve populations as well as adult and youth participants. Shared themes indicate that Indigenous SU research reflects community psychology principles, as an outgrowth of research agendas and processes that are increasingly guided by Indigenous communities. At the same time, this research challenges these principles in important ways pertaining to Indigenous-settler relations and Indigenous-specific considerations. We discuss these challenges and recommend greater synergy between community psychology and Indigenous research.

PMID: 31365138 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]