Psychology of Older American Indians and Alaska Natives: Strengths and Challenges to Maintaining Mental Health

  • Sarah Poff Roman
  • Lori L. Jervis
  • Spero M. Manson
Chapter
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Abstract

This chapter presents information on mental health issues among older American Indian and Alaska Native adults, focusing on sociohistorical factors, environmental factors, and barriers to help-seeking as major challenges to the maintenance of mental health in this group. We also describe several strengths that contribute to resilience among Native elders, including support systems, ethnic and cultural identity, and spirituality. We provide recommendations for capitalizing upon these strengths in order to address the challenges faced by Native elders, including the importance of engaging community networks in the research process and incorporating Native cultural elements into biomedical mental health care. The chapter concludes with recommendations for future research, including the need to develop culturally relevant instrumentation and methods specific to this population.

Keywords

Mental Health Mental Health Service Mental Health Issue Mental Health Program Native Culture 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  • Sarah Poff Roman
    • 1
  • Lori L. Jervis
    • 2
  • Spero M. Manson
    • 3
  1. 1.University of Colorado DenverAuroraUSA
  2. 2.Center for Applied Social ResearchUniversity of OklahomaNormanUSA
  3. 3.Department of Community and Behavioral HealthColorado School of Public HealthAuroraUSA

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