Authors: Myra E. Parker, Christina E. Oré, Darwyn C. Largo, and Tia R. Benally

Publication Year: Fall 2023

Keywords: Culturally Informed Care, Health Care Access, Mental and Behavioral Health, Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), Traditional Healing, Indigenous Determinants of Health, SDOH, training, storytelling, framework, evaluation, Sovereignty, sociocultural factors, economics, systemic factors, structural factors

Abstract: 
Along the journey there are paths taken, barriers overcome, knowledge gained, and experience lived. As Native people, our connections to land and place support how we understand and apply the concept of Indigenous Social Determinants of Health (ISDoH) for our shared purpose of community healing, health and well-being.‍

Indigenous social determinants of health resources and materials for tribal and urban public health systems. This site brings together ISDoH related resources and a six-module training to share in your communities. The material and resources we share center Indigenous perspectives and views on health, healing, and well-being. This training will allow public health practitioners to reevaluate social determinants of health from an Indigenous lens.

The ISDOH training includes six modules designed to offer tribal and urban Indian public health practitioners with the essential practice and content necessary to map out their own Indigenous Social Determinants of Health framework. The modules use interactive and engaging activities and vignettes to develop an understanding of ISDOH at the individual, family, and community levels to consider connections to health and well-being.

The first module: Our Stories, Our Journeys focuses on exploring, with community partners, the important aspects of the tribal or urban Indian community that impact health and well-being at the individual, family, and community levels.

The second module: Social Determinants of Health provides attendees with a series of exercises to explore and define SDOH and examine how these factors contribute to AIAN health.

The third module: Indigenous Social Determinants of Health supports an examination of Indigenous-specific social determinants of health in AIAN communities. It also provides examples of how to examine health outcomes and behaviors from an ISDOH perspective to best support individual and community health equity.

The fourth module: Structural Determinants of Health provides attendees with an opportunity to examine health outcomes and the intersection with ISDOH from the community / population level. This is to support a systems approach to understanding and mapping how tribal governments and urban Indian institutes and organizations can organize a support system community wide to improve health outcomes.

The fifth module: Systemic Determinants of Health provides attendees the opportunity to consider the impact of systemic inequities such as discrimination on access and use of health services. Asserting rights to access and use of health services is discussed through tribal sovereignty and governance. The activity to support understanding of the concept is called “wayfinding.”

The sixth module: Training Application examines how the SDOH and ISDOH may be related to one another and offers a process for identifying those factors that are priorities for departmental intervention and programming.

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Type of Resource: Reports