University of Hawaii Center for Indigenous Innovation and Health Equity - The University of Hawai’i Center for Indigenous Innovation and Health Equity (UH CIIHE) posits that Indigenous innovation, which is the application of traditional Indigenous knowledge, practices, and methodologies to contemporary problems, is the most effective tool for addressing Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) health disparities. The proposed project will build on the first two years of UH CIIHE’s expertise and experience to collaborate with one of its core partners, Kōkua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services (KKV), in the application of the Pilinahā Framework to address cardiometabolic diseases, including hypertension, obesity, and diabetes, and mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and suicide, through four overarching project goals in the areas of service, education, research, and policy. Goal 1: Collaborate to support community-based efforts that increase NHPI patients’ exposure to traditional cultural practices as a buffer against chronic diseases, specifically cardiometabolic diseases and mental health disorders. Goal 2: Leverage education and training to improve coordination between healthcare systems and community-based organizations to advance the integration of traditional cultural practices into clinical settings. Goal 3: Expand the research base regarding the use of traditional cultural practices to address chronic diseases, specifically cardiometabolic diseases and mental health disorders. Goal 4: Improve policymakers’ understanding of the benefits of traditional cultural practices to address chronic diseases and advance health equity for NHPI populations. These goals will drive community-, organizational-, and systemic-level interventions to address NHPI health disparities through the application of traditional cultural practices. Expected outcomes will include improvement in protective factors for NHPI populations, including knowledge of cultural practices; connection to land, culture, and family/community; access to and support for culturally appropriate health services and SDOH programming; stress level; access to healthy cultural foods and understanding of ʻai pono (traditional healthy eating practices); and sense of well-being and agency. Community-based health organizations will improve their infrastructure to support the application of traditional cultural practices in clinical settings, community-based organizations will improve their capacity to contribute to research and policy to further develop the evidence base for NHPI Indigenous innovations in health, and policy professionals will improve their understanding of the value of this approach and identify opportunities for policy change to support these efforts. The findings from our work will be disseminated broadly among UH CIIHE’s network of partners and advisory board members, and through workshops, presentations at conferences, a quarterly newsletter, and the UH CIIHE website.
