Blackfeet Community College Center for Culture as Medicine

蒙大拿州的美国原住民社区经历了严重的健康差距，包括心理健康 导致全因死亡率比白人高58%的疾病。为BlackFoot提供资金 社区学院(BCC)通过前一次NARCH拨款产生的研究结果表明， 黑脚社区成员与黑脚社区和文化的联系对他们的健康有积极的影响 (1)。根据这些发现，当前BlackFeet NARCH应用程序的首要目标是 发展中心，促进黑脚族的身心健康 作为医学的文化(CCM)。我们认为，投资于开发本土研究人员以及研究 BCC的基础设施可以对未来几代人的健康前景产生重大和持久的影响 黑脚族。确定保留健康差距的来源和原因，并减少或 通过研究、缓解、补救和公共教育消除这些原因可能具有重要意义 对健康的影响。拟议的项目利用了过去几年NARCH的努力，以 在生物医学研究方面培训BCC教职员工，并建立学院的研究基础设施，包括 BCC的艺术研究实验室使我们的学生和教职员工能够表演广泛的 研究项目。重要的是，之前的资金开始在BCC和 黑脚社区。在这个建议中，我们利用这种发展中的研究文化和我们之前的结果来 通知建议的干预措施，进一步培养对密歇根大学师生的研究兴趣，探索新的 改善健康的传统方法，并发展可持续的BCC-CCM。 为了实现改善黑脚族健康和发展BCC的目标- CCM，我们建议实现以下具体目标：1.根据我们以前的经验进行干预 旨在改善黑脚族身心健康的研究。2.产生新的结果 这将为未来的干预措施提供信息，这些干预措施将对黑脚族的健康担忧做出回应。3. 通过发展可持续的BCC-CCM，建设BCC的卫生公平研究能力。这些目标 将通过拟议的BCC-CCM、管理核心、学生和教师研究完成 发展项目，基于加强预订参与者与社区的联系的干预措施 和文化，以改善身心健康，并开展一个试点项目，探索皮卡尼语如何 对健康有积极的影响。

Native American communities in Montana experience severe health disparities, including mental health diseases that result in an all-cause death rate that is 58% higher than the white rate. Funding of Blackfeet Community College (BCC) by a previous NARCH grant produced research results that indicate the degree of connection of Blackfeet community members to Blackfeet community and culture positively affects their health (1). In light of these findings, the overarching goal of the current Blackfeet NARCH application is to improve the mental and physical health of the Blackfeet Nation by the development of the BCC Center for Culture as Medicine (CCM). We believe investing in developing Native researchers as well as research infrastructure at BCC can have a significant and lasting effect on the health prospects of future generations of Blackfeet people. Identifying the sources and causes of reservation health disparities and reducing or eliminating those causes through research, mitigation, remediation, and public education can have significant impact on health. The proposed project leverages the previous NARCH efforts over the last several years to train BCC faculty in biomedical research and to build the college’s research infrastructure, including a state-of- the art research laboratory at BCC that has enabled our students and faculty to perform a broad range of research projects. Importantly, the previous funding began to develop a research culture at BCC and the Blackfeet community. In this proposal, we utilize this developing research culture and our previous results to inform a proposed intervention, further develop the research interest in BCC students and faculty, explore new traditional approaches to improve health, and develop a sustainable BCC-CCM. In order to accomplish the goals of improving the health of the Blackfeet Nation and to develop the BCC- CCM, we propose to achieve the following specific aims: 1. perform interventions informed by our previous research to improve the physical and mental health of the Blackfeet Nation. 2. generate new results that will inform future interventions that will respond to health concerns among the Blackfeet Nation. 3. build the capacity of health equity research at BCC by developing a sustainable BCC-CCM. These aims will be accomplished through the proposed BCC-CCM, Administrative Core, a student and faculty research development project, an intervention based on enhancing connection of reservation participants to community and culture to improve physical and mental health, and a pilot project to explore how the Piikani language can positively affect health.