Alaska Natives into Psychology (ANPsych) - American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) peoples are resilient, but the costs of colonialism are immense. These social determinants of health continue to impact AIANs today. For example, AIAN communities have the highest rates of suicide in the US. The state of Alaska, where 229 of the 574 federally recognized tribes are located, has the 2nd highest suicide rate in the nation, mostly occurring among people in rural Alaska, which are majority Alaska Native.
To address these issues, the mental health field has employed conventional approaches that – though well-intentioned – still reflect colonial processes and dynamics (e.g., maintaining the power differential between the therapist and patient; deficit-oriented). Consequently, conventional services continue to be ill-fitting (e.g., patronizing, victim-blaming), further turning off and harming AIAN communities. Thus, the mistrust AIANs have toward western institutions that was rooted in colonialism are further reinforced by colonial-like modern-day practices, leading to continued avoidance by AIAN individuals of western institutions today.
A reflection of this continued mistrust is the low numbers of AIAN students in college. At the University of Alaska, only 5% of students are AIAN, lower than the statewide AIAN population of 22%. This contributes to the underrepresentation of AIANs in the health workforce in general, and the mental health workforce in particular. This also exacerbates the disparity between high AIAN mental health issues and low numbers of AIAN mental health professionals, worsening the need for more culturally-congruent mental health research and services with AIAN communities. Nationally, AIANs compose only 0.13% of the psychologist workforce, lower than AIAN’s 3% proportion of the US population. This underrepresentation of AIAN mental health professionals is likely to be the case as well in Alaska. Many Alaskans, particularly in rural areas that are mostly AIAN, do not get their mental health needs met due to provider shortages.
Given the historical and contemporary realities of AIAN communities, however, simply increasing the number of providers is not enough, especially if they employ conventional services that may be incongruent, ineffective, and harmful to AIAN communities. What seems needed is an approach that does not reproduce colonial processes and dynamics. What seems needed is an approach that undoes past hurts, and builds trust and relationships with AIAN Peoples; an approach built on collaboration, oriented toward strengths, and also focused on systemic changes – principles of Community Psychology.
The University of Alaska Anchorage’s (UAA) PhD Program in Clinical-Community Psychology – with its emphasis on indigenous and rural psychology – is uniquely suited to address AIAN mental health needs in a more culturally-congruent manner. Despite limited resources, the UAA Psychology PhD Program has been successful in mentoring and graduating AIAN students who go on to work in various tribal health organizations supported by Indian Health Service (IHS), and the InPsych funding will create the Alaska Natives into Psychology (ANPsych) Program to Support, Enhance, Expand, and Develop UAA Psychology PhD Program’s efforts to recruit AIAN students into psychology and mentor them to ensure completion of their degrees. Specifically, ANPsych will: Support student mentoring (career, academic, cultural) activities on campus; Enhance research and service project awards for AIAN students; Expand scholarships and community partnerships for AIAN PhD students; and Develop summer activities to help (1) outreach and recruitment efforts to AIAN communities, tribal and rural colleges, and urban and rural high schools, (2) establish relationships with AIAN health organizations, and (3) facilitate AIAN students’ academic progress. This approach will significantly contribute to IHS’s mission to address health issues, promote wellness, and better serve AIAN communities.
