Alcoholism is a terrifying problem for which the Alaska Native community is seeking solutions. Photo by me, carving by my favorite Native artist Bobby Nashookpuk
Alaska summers of 24 hours of sunlight can make you overly ambitious. During my last summer I spent the mornings learning to herd reindeer, the afternoon taking a course in psychology, and evenings working at a group home for emotionally disturbed boys. Rise, repeat.
The course was held at University of Alaska Fairbanks which offers fascinating learning opportunities at a more than affordable cost. Ever since then I’ve been receiving UAF’s magazine- The Aurora. The cover story for the fall edition was “A Way from Despair- Can Learning Old Skills Save Young Lives?” by Diana Campbell. I was thrilled to learn about the People Awakening Project which brought together researchers and Alaska Natives in a positive way.
The People Awakening Project was begun as a response to the Pulitzer Prize winning article “People in Peril,” which investigated the toll alcoholism is taking on Alaska Native communities. In 1996 over 36% of deaths due to alcohol were Alaska Natives, who comprise just 17% of the state population.
While alcoholism is a problem in these communities, what had been ignored were the success stories of those who have always been sober or have recovered from alcoholism. Alaska Natives (AN) were aware of the problem, but they were in need of solutions.
The People Awakening Project (PA), led by the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, was a partnership funded with a multi-million dollar grant from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Center for Minority Health Disparities. The program sought to understand what was special about those who had a healthy relationship with alcohol, and to use that knowledge to find solutions to end the epidemic. Members of all AN tribal groups were represented in the PA Coordinating Council which served as a co-researcher. The project was divided into four phases.
Phase I consisted of interviews with 56 women and 45 men, distributed across all AN tribal affiliations, who had either never drank, were non problem drinkers, those who had been abstinent 5 years or more after problem drinking. The interviews were then combed for common themes. What emerged were protective factors that promoted living “life as it is meant to be lived.”
Some Protective Factors Among Alaska Natives
- Awareness of the consequences of your actions, “Ellangneq”
- Believing in yourself- “self-efficacy”
- Knowing you can work with others to solve problems- “communal-mastery”
- Sober family members
- Families who praise the accomplishments of their children
~For the complete list go here
Phase III used protective factors to create new ways of measuring sobriety and risks for excessive drinking. These measures are unique in that they are specifically tailored to the Alaska Native community, such as a new adaptation of the “Drinker Inventory of Consequences.”
Elluam Tungiinum- Toward Wellness
Phase II of the project sought to use the protective factors to see if they could be developed into programs and taught in the villages. Two programs emerged- Yupiucimta Asvairtuumallerkaa which addressed substance abuse and Elluam Tungiinum which added in suicide prevention. Communities sought to find ways to integrate teaching of the protective factors during every day activities, especially traditional ones such as cleaning fish. The video below is a demonstration of how to show children their importance by including them in fish camp work.
Other lessons include using ice as a metaphor for drinking. Children are taught not only how to survive falling through ice, but how like alcohol ice can lead to a false sense of security and should be treated with caution. Lessons such as this are being packaged together in a “manual for intervention and prevention of suicide and substance abuse,” or Qungasvik- “toolbox.”
The community of Alakanuk developed 20 of the 36 prevention activities, and a community on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta created the rest. Phase IV will use another grant from the National Center on Minority and Health Disparities to work with communities to test if the prevention tools work.
In health inequities research we often focus too much on finding the problems. Equally important is working with the affected communities to find solutions that work. Projects such as People Awakening are a great example of researchers and communities working together to end health inequity.
For More Information:
Listen to the interviews that lead to the development of the protective factors here
See the sobriety model developed as a result of the People Awakening Project here
Read the final report here
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