From June 2001 NASW NEWS
Copyright ©2001, National Association of Social Workers, Inc.

School Starts $1.9 Million Project

The study will yield a picture of American Indian youths' help needs.

The George Warren Brown School of Social Work and the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies at Washington University in St. Louis are jointly launching a project focusing on mental health and substance abuse servies for American Indian adolescents.

Funded by a $1.9 million National Institute for Drug Abuse grant, the confidential study, called the American Indian Multisector Help Inquiry (AIM-HI), is one of the first to gather information solely on the use of mental health and substance abuse services by American Indian youths. The five-year study will involve interviews with adolescents and health service providers in both urban and reservation-based areas in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz.

The project is being headed by Arlene Stiffman, professor of social work, and Eddie Brown, associate dean for community affairs at the social work school and director of the Buder Center.

"AIM-HI will provide a comprehensive picture of the American Indian youths' needs for help, the traditional and nontraditional ways they seek help and the assistance they receive in ameliorating their problems," Stiffman said.

Brown, a member of the Pascua Yaqui tribe and affiliated with the Tohono O'Odham Nation, said, "The study is vital to providing improved substance abuse and mental health services to American Indian youths who are in dire need of coordinated care."

American Indian adolescents suffer from disproportionately high substance abuse problems, often combined with mental health problems. According to the Phoenix Indian Center, American Indians are 13 percent of the Arizona population, but receive only 5 percent of substance abuse or mental health services. The federally funded Indian Health Service, which many youths used as their primary provider, does not offer extensive substance abuse and mental health services.

Additionally, a lack of on-reservation services impedes the youths' access to state-funded health and mental health services, said Brown. Affordability, geographical isolation and transportation problems can also contribute to lack of access.

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