Coming Home: The Reintegration of Native Yup'ik Soldiers/Veterans into their rural communities

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这项研究探讨了阿拉斯加原住民（Yup'ik）士兵和从中东战区返回的退伍军人在重新融入位于阿拉斯加西南部育空地区- Kuskokwim三角洲的农村孤立社区时自杀的潜在和多重风险。阿拉斯加原住民社区--特别是Yup'ik社区--的自杀率在美国任何地方都是最高的，年轻的原住民男子面临的风险最大（Perkins 2006）。来自中东战区的退伍军人以惊人的速度自杀，这些土著士兵/退伍军人正在返回一个双重的社会和情感环境（Tanielian，2008）。此外，可能阻碍士兵和退伍军人获得所需行为和心理健康服务的两个主要因素是获得护理和寻求护理的意愿。探索性研究有三个主要目标：第一，调查土著士兵和退伍军人利用多种策略来谈判这种双重风险环境。其次，研究这些年轻的土著男子所面临的斗争影响他们日常生活经验的具体方式，即与他们的家庭、同龄人和社区的社会关系。 最后，探讨在什么情况下，这些年轻的土著成年人可能会或可能不会选择寻求帮助，什么已被定性为“无形的战争创伤”（Tanielian，2008年）。研究人员的假设是，如果没有一个文化敏感的，以社区为基础的护理模式-一个中间地带-可以作为一个桥梁，不寻求任何护理，即，“独自行动”，积极参与基于证据的自杀意念和抑郁症、创伤后应激障碍、药物滥用等相关问题的医疗护理，这些农村社区的土著士兵/退伍军人面临双重自杀风险，因为他们不仅与同龄军人隔离（Messinger 2008），而且与家人和社区隔离（利夫顿，1973;附录C）。这项研究旨在了解什么是中间地带的参数可能看起来像是在一次社会，文化和历史contextualized.This阶段的研究有助于我们了解这些年轻的阿拉斯加原住民士兵/退伍军人所面临的社会和情感问题的复杂性，以新的方式，允许更深入的见解通常错过了更专业的社区研究方法。虽然许多社区研究现在已经将人种志的组成部分纳入其研究设计，它通常是由快速反应技术，这通常涉及在村庄停留一个星期左右，从而减少了对嵌入当地历史的当地社会生活的理解。这项研究不仅探讨了有自杀风险的个人的生活经历，而且将他们置于他们的家庭，历史，社区和文化的背景下。在这样做的过程中，这些人的长处和弱点都会显现出来，可能会为在这种情况下接触和帮助人们制定新的方法。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This research explores the potential and multiple risks of suicide for Native (Yup'ik) Alaskan soldiers and veterans returning from the Middle East war theatre as they reintegrate into their rural isolated communities located in the Yukon - Kuskokwim Delta of southwest Alaska. Native Alaskan communities in general - and Yup'ik communities in particular - have some of the highest suicide rates of anywhere in the United States and young Native men are at the greatest risk (Perkins 2006). Insofar as veterans from the Middle East war theatre are committing suicide at an alarming rate these Native soldiers/ veterans are returning to a doubly charged social and emotional landscape (Tanielian, 2008). Moreover, two of the primary factors that can inhibit soldiers and veterans from obtaining the needed behavioral and mental health services are access to care and willingness to seek care. The exploratory study has three key objectives; first, to investigate the multiple strategies utilized by Native soldiers and veterans to negotiate this dual risk environment. Secondly, to examine the particular ways in which the struggles that some of these young Native men face affect their everyday lived experience, that is social relations with their families, their peers and their community. Lastly, to explore under what circumstances these young Native adults may or may not choose to seek help for what has been characterized as the "invisible wounds of war" (Tanielian, 2008). The researcher's hypothesis is that without a culturally - sensitive, community - based modality of care - a middle ground - that can serve as a bridge between not seeking any care at all, ie., "going it alone" and actively engaging with evidenced based medical care for suicide ideation and associated problems of depression, PTSD, substance abuse, these Native soldiers/veterans in rural communities are doubly at risk for suicide as they are isolated - not only from their military peers ( Messinger 2008) - but also from their families and their community (Lifton, 1973; Appendix C). This study seeks to understand what the parameters of that middle ground might look like that is at once socially, culturally and historically contextualized.This phase of the research contributes to our understanding of the complexity of the social and emotional problems faced by these young Native Alaska soldier/veterans in new ways that allows for more in depth insights usually missed by more prosaic community research methods. Although many community studies have now incorporated an ethnographic component into their research design, it is usually delimited by rapid response techniques, which usually involved a stay in village a week or so, thus mitigating an understanding of a locally lived social lives embedded within local history. This study not only explores the lived experiences of individuals at risk for suicide, but places them within the context of their families, their history, their community and their culture. In doing so both the strengths as well as the vulnerabilities of such emerge that may map new ways to reach and reach out to people in such circumstances.