Asthma is the second most common chronic condition among Aboriginal youth. This three-phase study aims to understand the psycho-social barriers facing asthmatic Mi’kmaq youth and their parents/caregivers living in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and facilitate health promoting behaviours at the community-level. A community-based participatory research approach was undertaken to: 1) identify the support needs/intervention preferences of asthmatic Mi’kmaq youth and their parents/caregivers; 2) design and pilot test a culturally appropriate support-education intervention that meets these preferences; and 3) identify the implications of the findings for asthma programs, policies, and practices and determine dissemination strategies. The findings suggest that there is a lack of community-level asthma support available to Mi’kmaq families managing the condition despite a strong desire for these services. This study offers three community-driven recommendations to increase available support: improve school-based asthma policy, develop asthma expertise within each community health center, and implement an annual, culturally appropriate asthma camp.

For generations of Mi’kmaq from Pictou Landing First Nation, A’se’k (often referred to as Boat Harbour) provided cultural, recreation, and livelihood functions. For almost 50 years, this once-healthy tidal estuary has been receiving effluent from a nearby bleached kraft pulp mill. This study was carried out in partnership with the Pictou Landing Native Women’s Association, and sought to collect stories of A’se’k from Knowledge Holders who remember it as a healthy, thriving, culturally significant community place. Using a narrative approach of restorying, the historical importance of and changes to A’se’k are illuminated through the voices of Mi’kmaq who have lived the experiences. Their stories further highlight the ongoing environmental, health, and social injustices faced by Indigenous peoples, shaped by the many complex dimensions of colonialism and racism in Canada. Through a reflexive examination of my experiences as a non-Indigenous graduate student navigating the research landscape, this study also highlights a process of learning to be an ally alongside Indigenous partners. Together, these findings suggest the need to restory Canada’s (ongoing) colonial legacy, through community-based processes, in order to move towards ending colonial structures.

The objective of this study was to use a Community Based Participatory Approach and the results of a needs assessment conducted in previous research to develop videos on the topic of consuming fish during pregnancy. Phase one entailed conducting two small discussion groups with Chinese-Canadian women (n=28) to verify that the data collected in the needs assessment was still valid and to obtain more specific information about the preferred style of the videos. In phase two, researchers developed two scripts and filmed the videos. In phase three, researchers showed the videos to a sample of Chinese-Canadian women (n=20) in Peer Nutrition Program groups to gather preliminary feedback and to obtain a general sense of what the Chinese-Canadian women found most valuable in the videos. In general, the videos were well-received and the practical video made a greater impression on the women than the scientific information.

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The Sachigo Lake Wilderness Emergency Response Education Initiative represented a partnership between Sachigo Lake First Nation in northern Ontario Canada, and medical professionals and university researchers from outside the community. This study was one component of a larger community-based participatory research program to develop locally relevant first response training to address the isolation from emergency healthcare in Sachigo Lake. The aim of this qualitative study was to complete a formative evaluation to understand how a five-day comprehensive training course implemented in May 2012: (a) met the local needs of Sachigo Lake; and (b) fostered resilience and community capacity. The results of this study describe the unique features of delivering first aid training in a remote context and illustrate the intrapersonal and interpersonal impacts of the program. Health promotion through community based first aid education is a model with potential to improve emergency care in the absence of formal emergency medical services.

A pocket of HIV infection has grown to epidemic proportions in a mostly Aboriginal1 community in Northern Alberta. At the start of the research my assumptions were that Aboriginal2 sexuality is affected by political, historical, cultural, psychological, and social factors that underpin the social determinants of health. STI/HIV is a symptom of the marginalized status of Aboriginal peoples who experienced historical trauma due to colonization. As an insider researcher, using an exploratory design I addressed the following questions: 1) is popular theatre a culturally appropriate medium for introducing information to increase knowledge of STI/HIV in an Aboriginal audience? 2) Is popular theatre an effective way to encourage audience members to express their attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours related to sexual health? 3) How are popular theatre and action research methodologically and conceptually appropriate for preventing STI/HIV? 4) How do the influence of elders and a popular theatre practitioner affect the intervention? 5) Can the use of action research and popular theatre influence the attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours to promote healthy sexual choices? 6) Is narrative analysis a good way for Aboriginal people to tell their stories or have their stories told? Completing this exploratory research was financially possible through the Aboriginal Health Strategy. The funds enabled me to recruit a popular theatre practitioner, a group of young Indigenous community members and supportive elders to answer my research questions. The data was obtained through one-to-one interviews, journals, talking circles, and field notes of the community-based theatre and action research process. Due to a lack of time in the field, narrative analysis was not used. Instead I introduced Grandmother Spider and developed a dream catcher that I refer to as the Indigenous Iterative Webbed Circle to analyze the real and fictional stories that led to the community performance of My Peoples Blood. The methods are appropriate and effective if the principles of Community Based Participatory Research and action research are followed by all group members involved in this popular theatre project.

Human life is to be universally cherished and valued. Policies about how to value lives are often developed following gross human rights violations. Some of the most horrific violations have occurred under the guise of biomedical and behavioral research. As a result, policies have been developed to protect participants. Presumably, the primary responsibility of the researcher is their protection. There are, however, potential tensions between protections and research agendas, which set the occasion for over selection of participants with vulnerabilities. This dynamic may establish competing contingencies that devalue, and potentially harm, participants. Power imbalances inherent in the researcher-participant relationship establish the researcher as the dominant knowledge seeking authority and the participant as the subservient subject. Ideally, research in applied behavior analysis is driven by a steadfast orientation toward the enhancement of human life and the amelioration of suffering. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of human rights trends in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. The dependent measures are based on ethical principles established for the protection of participants and recommendations concerning participatory research practices in applied behavior analysis. The results indicate that in some cases, protections have been minimally reported. Furthermore, power imbalances are highly likely given the processes and outcomes reported. The trends appear to be moving in an unfavorable direction in most cases. Findings are discussed on three levels: 1) a conceptual analysis of potential contingencies that influence applied behavior analytic research, 2) considerations around coloniality, and, 3) recommendations to neutralize and diffuse power imbalances to ensure the applied spirit of the science is actualized.

abstract: Native American communities face an ongoing challenge of effectively addressing cancer health disparities, as well as environmental racism issues that may compound these inequities. This dissertation identified the shared cultural knowledge and beliefs about cancer in a southwest American Indian community utilizing a cultural consensus method, an approach that combines qualitative and quantitative data. A community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach was applied at all stages of the study. The three phases of research that were undertaken included: 1) ethnographic interviews - to identifying the themes or the content of the participants' cultural model, 2A) ranking of themes - to provide an understanding of the relative importance of the content of the cultural model, 2B) pile sorts - identify the organization of items within specific domains, and 3) a community survey - access whether the model is shared in the greater community. The cultural consensus method has not been utilized to date in identifying the collective cultural beliefs about cancer prevention, treatment or survivorship in a Native American community. Its use represents a methodological step forward in two areas: 1) the traditional ethnographic inferences used in identifying and defining cultural meaning as it relates to health can be tested more rigorously than in the past, and 2) it addresses the challenge of providing reliable results based on a small number of community informants. This is especially significant when working with smaller tribal/cultural groups where the small sample size has led to questions concerning the reliability and validity of health-related research. Results showed that the key consultants shared strong agreement or consensus on a cultural model regarding the importance of environmental and lifestyle causes of cancer. However, there was no consensus found among the key consultants on the prevention and treatment of cancer. The results of the community survey indicated agreement or consensus in the sub-domains of descriptions of cancer, risk/cause, prevention, treatment, remission/cure and living with cancer. Identifying cultural beliefs and models regarding cancer could contribute to the effective development of culturally responsive cancer prevention education and treatment programs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Anthropology 2011

This paper describes a community coalition-university partnership to address health needs in an underserved US-Mexico border, community. For approximately 15 years, this coalition engaged in community-based participatory research with community organizations, state/local health departments, and the state's only accredited college of public health. Notable efforts include the systematic collection of health-relevant data 12 years apart and data that spawned numerous health promotion activities. The latter includes specific evidence-based chronic disease-preventive interventions, including one that is now disseminated and replicated in Latino communities in the US and Mexico, and policy-level changes. Survey data to evaluate changes in a range of health problems and needs, with a specific focus on those related to diabetes and access to healthcare issues-identified early on in the coalition as critical health problems affecting the community-are presented. Next steps for this community and lessons learned that may be applicable to other communities are discussed.

Injuries are one of the leading causes of death for individuals in Canada. Most injuries are predictable and preventable events that may be reduced by health promotion and injury prevention strategies. In particular, boating fatalities are a leading cause of injury death for men, particularly Aboriginal men, in northern Canada. Despite decades of water safety campaigns, Aboriginal men remain overrepresented in boating fatality statistics. Elevated rates of boating fatalities for Aboriginal men in northern Canada indicate that current water safety messages and initiatives may not be reaching those most vulnerable to boating incidents. My thesis, which is written in the publishable paper format and is comprised of two papers, investigates Aboriginal men’s boating incidents in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. In paper one, I use a community-based participatory research methodology informed by postcolonial feminist theory to investigate the risk factors that Aboriginal male residents identified as contributing to boating incidents in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Together, we found that sex and gender, age, place, and lack of boating safety education are the most prominent risk factors for boating incidents. In paper two, I argue that community members are key holders of local knowledge and their expertise should thus be drawn upon by academic researchers and health programmers for the co-creation of injury prevention programs. In it, I provide an overview of the process that led to the co-creation of a boating education poster campaign in Inuvik. Together, the two papers in this thesis demonstrate that community-based strategies should be employed to address health inequities in boating incidents faced by Aboriginal men in the Northwest Territories.