Southwest Tribal Native American Research Center for Health (NARCH X)

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PROJECT TITLE: Southwest Tribal NARCH X Center Overview PROGRAM DIRECTOR/PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Dr. Kevin English Project Summary/Abstract The overarching goal of the Southwest Tribal NARCH X is to strengthen research partnerships among an intertribal organization (Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board, Inc.), five academic institutions (University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, Arizona State University, Université du Québec a Montréal, and the University of Washington), and the 27 Tribes that comprise the Indian Health Service (IHS) Albuquerque Area, to engage in meaningful and rigorous health research to address persistent health disparities witnessed among American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) in the Southwest, while promoting a cadre of AI/AN scholars and health research professionals. Together, the partnership will build upon our successful prior history of collaboration in NARCH I, NARCH III, NARCH V, and NARCH VII to support health research projects prioritized by the AI/AN communities in our region. Specific components of our Center will include: 1) an AI/AN Student Career Enhancement Project that incorporates a researcher training program for AI/AN students, financial assistance to AI/AN graduate students, and robust community-academic partnerships to strengthen AI/AN student pipelines to health science degree programs; 2) a research project titled “Indoor Radon Exposure and Radon-Associated Cancer Incidence in Tribal Communities”, to create a predictive spatial model of indoor radon exposure risk for tribal communities in northern New Mexico; 3) a second research project titled, “Stories of Resilience from the Southwest” that will utilize a strengths-based and narrative research approach to identify factors of resiliency to develop culturally-based intervention models to decrease health disparities; 4) a pilot research project titled, “Tribal Equine Assisted Psychotherapy: Building Youth Resiliency Through Horses” that will test the efficacy of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) as a complementary intervention with at-risk AI/AN adolescents and develop a culturally informed EAP implementation guide for use in tribal settings; 5) a second pilot research project titled “Stakeholder-Identified Needs and Priorities for AI/AN Children with Disabilities” to characterize the experience and needs of AI/AN children with disabilities (CWD) across diverse AI/AN cultures and settings in order to use stakeholder-engaged processes to develop a culturally-appropriate intervention to improve the health and quality of life of AI/AN CWD; and 6) the administrative core, which will a) provide overall leadership and coordination to the Center and its components; b) maintain the Southwest Tribal NARCH Community and Scientific Advisory Council (CSAC) to ensure rigorous tribal oversight of all components and activities; and c) support the continued operation of the Southwest Tribal Institutional Review Board (IRB) to advance the benefits of ethical health research to area tribes and reduce AI/AN community distrust of research and researchers by giving tribes greater control over the research process.