Native American Health Resources

Results: All participants mentioned their preferences, views about, or experiences of using natural or traditional medicine approaches (referenced 65 times). Emergent themes include (a) preference for and use of traditional medicine; (b) resistance to western healthcare systems; (c) preference for holistic approaches to health; and (d) negative provider interpersonal interactions contributing to reluctance in seeking care. Conclusion: These findings suggest that integrating a holistic conceptualization of health and traditional medicine practices into Western healthcare settings would benefit Native Americans.

Past experiences enhance the future. Health care providers gaining expertise in creative thinking, traditional medicine, spirituality, and cultural sensitivity is an essential requirement for 21st century health care. We must stay mindful that poverty, isolation, and rural living may create new forms of social exclusion because of lack of communication and rapidly changing technology. Conversely, sensory overload resulting from a faster paced lifestyle and rapid enhancements in technology may cause increased tension and stress. This article reviews successes that may offer the reader ideas on coping with the provision of health care services in such a volatile changing environment, while honoring tradition and cultural competency.

Diverse projects being supported include healthy “makeovers” in tribally owned convenience stores in Oklahoma, indoor air quality improvement interventions in the Northern Plains, and substance abuse prevention in tribal colleges and urban areas, to name a few. Although the first round of funded projects are only now starting to collect and analyze data, the initiative represents a shift in how research is conducted with tribal communities.

Finally, I gesture beyond the consideration of Indigenous therapeutic traditions to trace the profound implications of a decolonization agenda for knowledge, practice, and training in counseling psychology.

The themes identified inform nursing practice by pointing out the importance of culture within traditional Indigenous healing, as well as the need for a holistic approach when caring for Indigenous people. Additionally, the Indigenous men healers acknowledged their connection with Western medicine as part of the process of healing for their clients. This emphasizes the need for nurses and other health care providers to become knowledgeable regarding traditional Indigenous healing that their clients may be receiving, in order to foster open communication.

Drawing upon the concepts of both Navajo philosophy and the medicine wheel, the authors offer a group counseling model by which to help restore direction, hope, and self worth to adolescents.

Within this theoretical framework, physical illness, which is viewed as simultaneously spiritual, mental, and physical, can be treated by counseling and ceremony. Due to the interaction and hierarchical nature of these levels, intervention at any one level affects the others.

The Nursing in the Native American Culture conceptual framework should be used as a guide when planning and implementing health care and research with Native American populations. Health care providers and researchers should utilise the conceptual framework to establish trust and commitment to deliver care and conduct research in a culturally respectful manner.

This article reports research findings on the impact of Oglala Lakota Sioux traditional healing on family functioning and youth resiliency where trauma, abuse, or violence are often present. Caregivers of Lakota youth struggling with serious emotional and behavioral problems participated in the study. The study included both quantitative and qualitative samples: 27 families for the quantitative sample and 8 families for the qualitative sample. Results from caregivers revealed that traditional healing and cultural practices, as well as the promotion of cultural identity, had statistically significant positive effects on the perceived familial and individual functioning of Lakota youth and their families. Effect sizes indicate that the results have strong practical significance.