Community-Based Participatory Research - Paper Example

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has provided an alternative approach to stimulating a collaborative relationship between the researchers and the communities (Johansson, Knox-Nicola, & Schmid, 2015). CBPR recognizes the community as the source of expertise to solve the underlying problems and therefore utilizes social action and education to facilitate interventions (Verney, 2016). CBPR is commonly used by researchers in working with indigenous and tribal communities such as the American Indians and the Alaska natives (Townsend et al., 2015). The program encourages co-learning, capacity building, mutual benefits and sustainable implementation of projects. Furthermore, the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) will be used as a case study population. The AI/AN are a minority group in an America comprising 1.7% of the general American population. However, the communities demonstrate strength, resilience, and endurance despite advances to assimilate and eradicate them. As a result, the community has faced social disparities in their lives. This makes them uncooperative during the research process. Apart from the Tribal-based Participatory research: the wellness circles project, other research projects utilize community-based participatory approaches. This paper will focus on identifying community-based participatory research projects among the American Indian and Alaska natives while comparing and contrasting them. Besides, the article will explain how the talking circle model can be used in health promotion and disease prevention.

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The tribal participatory research- the wellness circles project is one of the projects that used community research participatory research. The research was used to develop and implement mental health programs among the American Indians and the Alaska natives (Huff, Kline, Peterson, & Green, 2017). The development and execution of the research require the integration of culture, adverse and situational events that can affect the relationship with the tribal community. Furthermore, the tribal based participatory research evokes partnership and cooperation from the community under study. In the developmental phase of the research in the community, a strong working knowledge of the community under study regarding illness beliefs, communication styles, community priorities and conceptualization of psychological and physical needs are important factors to be considered.

Community engagement is a process that involves working collaboratively with groups of minority communities who are geographically affiliated, have common interests and live under the same situation concerning issues impacting on their wellness (Rae et al., 2016). Community engagement research (CEnR)has been widely used because of its effectiveness in harnessing community potential in health improvement (Oetzel, Villegas, Zenone, White, Wallerstein, & Duran, 2015). It has also been used to engage communities in research, promoting health and in establishing policies to address health problems including cancer, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and mental illnesses. The objective of the community engagement is to initiate changes in health through actively involving the community in the development and implementation phases. Community engagement research is one of the community-based participatory research that seeks to harmonize research and practice through equitably engaging the community in the elimination of disparities in population health. CEnR is similar to other community-based participatory research, but it involves a more collaborative partnering and leadership sharing between community members and the researcher. Improved collaboration between the stakeholders helps in capacity building and leads to research that is more beneficial to the community. Furthermore, the approach is effective because it advance co-creation in the research which contributes to culturally centered methods thereby

CBPR have been used in establishing a collaborative research towards developing cultural strategies for prevention of drug abuse and suicide among the tribal communities (Allen, Mohatt, Beehler, & Rowe, 2014). Research indicates that alcohol abuse and suicide are the principal sources of population disparity among the Alaska Natives and the American Indians populations. Therefore, CBPR was used to utilize the local knowledge, resources and theories in the intervention and implementation of the programs to prevent the prevalence of suicide and alcohol abuse (Wexler et al., 2015). This builds trust and ensures that the intervention programs are in line with community believe, traditions and values.

Furthermore, CBPR has been implemented in establishing a culturally rooted intervention program in prevention of substance abuse and in promoting tribal identity among the youth in the Pacific Northwest tribe (Donovan, 2015). The study used a combination of CBPR and tribal based participatory research (Jernigan, Jacob, & Styne, 2015). The tribes stimulated socially and culturally grounded skills which increased culturally belonging while preventing substance abuse among the youth in a tribal setting. The strategy increased optimism, hope and self-efficacy, therefore, increased the degree of self-identity and information about drug and alcohol abuse among the youth.

Moreover, CBPR was also used in a project in examining the roles and challenges of American Indian women through utilizing a culturally grounded collaborative process (Brave, 2016).

CBPR have also been used to reduce environmental health disparities in Indian American and Alaska natives (McOliver et al., 2015). The CBPR enables the designing of a program on the basis that tribal populations can fight the increasing risk of environmentally stimulated diseases. Therefore, through the model, the community realizes that their traditional practices and beliefs can have a substantial impact on the environment. Besides, the research engages the community leaders to address environmental concerns through the creation of expertise, capacity, and utilization of community resources.

Finally, the CBPR was also used in the evaluation of the Elluam Tungiinun (Towards Wellness) project (Rasmus, 2014). In this project, the CBPR was used implementation phase where the model takes careful consideration of the indigenous community contexts as having implications in health interventions sustainability and outcomes. Community members who participated in the evaluation gave a detailed contribution of the roles they played in the intervention and planning phase in the research. This indicates that CBPR is an effective model of influencing community participation and harmonizing the gap between the researcher and the community.

Utilizing the talking circle in health promotion and disease prevention settings

The talking circle refers to a traditional mode for Native American tribes in solving problems in the community. The talking circle is an efficient model for removing obstacles so that people can express themselves in freedom. Despite the fact that the talking circle way used in traditional American communities, the strategy has found its way into modern problem-solving techniques because of its popularity. The model is widely used in schools and corporate institutions in policy formulation and conflict resolutions. Symbolically, the circle has no dominant person, and therefore the participants can contribute their views without feeling inferior. Every participant sits in a circle while women sit on the south while men are seated on the north. The facilitator of the event sits on the east. The talking circle has a cultural ground among the indigenous American populations and therefore utilizing it in the policy making, and implementation of programs has high chances for success. This is because the people feel culturally identified and improve their self-efficacy (Yuan, Bartgis, & Demers, 2014). Through the talking circle, every participant is given a chance to share their view freely from their heart and therefore, honest opinions are collected.

The healing circle is an example of the talking circle which is guided by a conductor. The events are convened so that the community can deal with issues affecting them. The problems can be personal or allow people to share their burdens in a group. The talking circle allows the participant to have a voice and their problems to be heard in a more supportive and sympathetic environment. This affects the healing process as the person feels the burden off their chest. The participant psychologically feels relieved because he shares the burdens among the participants.

Likewise, the talking circle can be utilized in health promotion and disease prevention settings because of its efficiency in eliciting community engagement (Cyril, Smith, Possamai-Inesedy, & Renzaho, 2015). Using the model because of its cultural background associates the participants with their culture and therefore uses the culture as a resource to effect and implement changes in the community. The facilitator uses the model to disseminate information regarding the procedures for preventing diseases and promote healthy environments in the community. Besides, the talking circle gives the community members a chance to ask questions where they cannot understand. Similarly, the talking circle enables the policy to be exhaustively discussed thereby giving more options for implementation.

In conclusion, CBPR is a congruent approach in researching in minority groups especially the American Indian and the Alaska active population. The approach instills the spirit of collaboration among the community thereby improving the chances of an effective intervention program that is more sustainable. The approach integrates indigenous practices, values, and knowledge in finding solutions for the problems in the community such as drug abuse and health problems. All the community-based participatory research projects discussed insist on actively engaging the community in the research process to realize success.

References

Allen, J., Mohatt, G., Beehler, S., & Rowe, H. (2014). People Awakening: Collaborative Research to Develop Cultural Strategies for Prevention in Community Intervention. American Journal Of Community Psychology, 54(1-2), 100-111. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10464-014-9647-1

Brave Heart, M. (2016). Women finding the way: American Indian women leading intervention research in Native communities. American Indian And Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 23(3), 24-47. http://dx.doi.org/10.5820/aian.2303.2016.24

Cyril, S., Smith, B., Possamai-Inesedy, A., & Renzaho, A. (2015). Exploring the role of community engagement in improving the health of disadvantaged populations: a systematic review. Global Health Action, 8(1), 29842. http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.29842

Donovan. (2015). Healing of the Canoe: Preliminary Results of a Culturally Tailored Intervention to Prevent Substance Abuse and Promote Tribal Identity for Native Youth in Two Pacific Northwest Tribes. American Indian And Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 22(1), 42-76. http://dx.doi.org/10.5820/aian.2201.2015.42

Huff, R., Kline, M., Peterson, D., & Green, L. (2017). Health promotion in multicultural populations (1st ed.).

Jernigan, V., Jacob, T., & Styne, D. (2015). The Adaptation and Implementation of a Community-Based Participatory Research Curriculum to Build Tribal Research Capacity. American Journal Of Public Health, 105(S3), S424-S432. http://dx.doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2015.302674

Johansson, P., Knox-Nicola, P., & Schmid, K. (2015). The Waponahki Tribal Health Assessment: Successfully Using CBPR to Conduct a Comprehensive and Baseline Health Assessment of Waponahki Tribal Members....