Integrating Intergenerational Cultural Knowledge Exchange with Zero Suicide is an innovative study in a Southwestern tribal nation that incorporates Zero Suicide into Indian Health Services (IHS) primary care settings. The goal of this study is to determine the effectiveness of Zero Suicide plus a cultural component (ZS+) (experimental group) compared to Zero Suicide (ZS) alone (control group) on suicidal ideation, behaviors, and resiliency in a randomized control trial of 138 AI youth ages 12-24 at two rural IHS clinics on the Pueblo of San Felipe. The long-term goal of this study is to determine which is more effective at reducing suicidal ideation and behaviors and increasing resiliency, ZS+ or ZS alone. Year 1 will focus on training providers on the Zero Suicide model and manualizing the Katishtya Intergenerational Culture Knowledge Seminars (KICKS) curriculum that was piloted and positively evaluated over the past three summers as a cultural module to improve the adoption and acceptability of Zero Suicide. Years 2-4 will focus on participant recruitment, assignment to experimental and control groups, and implementation. Year 5 will focus on data analysis and dissemination. Data will be collected from all experimental and control group participants at 4 time points: baseline, 12-weeks, 6-months and 9-months to explore the effects of the intervention over time. The central hypothesis is that ZS+ will be more effective then ZS alone. We propose three aims: (1) Specific Aim 1: Using Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), partner with tribal stakeholders and researchers to formally manualize the KICKS cultural module for Zero Suicide (ZS+); (2) Specific Aim 2: To determine if adding a cultural component to the Zero Suicide model is more effective at reducing risk factors and increasing resiliency in AI youth than Zero Suicide alone; and (3) Specific Aim 3: Determine the essential features of the KICKS module for adaptation by other tribes and disseminate the model.
| Brave Heart, Maria Yellow Horse; Elkins, Jennifer; Tafoya, Greg et al. (2012) Wicasa Was'aka: restoring the traditional strength of American Indian boys and men. Am J Public Health 102 Suppl 2:S177-83 |
