The training of American Indian counseling and community psychologists should move away from conventional counseling tenets toward the use of culturally sensitive mental health approaches that maintain American Indian values. In this article, unique American Indian social and psychological perspectives concerning the process and theory of counseling are contrasted with the individualistic focus, style, and outcomes of therapy as practiced in America today. Empirical studies are reviewed concerning the role of social influences in the counseling process as perceived by American Indians and the types of problems Indians present in counseling. The under use of mental health services by American Indian is is associated with the tension surrounding power differentials in counseling relationships and perceived conflicting goals for acculturation between counselors and Indian clients. In addition, three types of psychological intervention-social learning, behavioral, and network -are reviewed and summarized for their contributions and implications for training counselors in effective mental health service delivery with American Indians.

Alcohol research in Alaska Native communities has a contentious history. This project has attempted to address a critical need for research to guide alcohol abuse prevention and treatment with Alaska Natives using culturally anchored participatory action research. The process of grounding the research methodology in the culture and community is described, along with its contribution to community psychology's understanding of the importance of cultural factors. Tensions between indigenous values and ways of knowing, and Western research methodologies are delineated, along with how these tensions were resolved. Important issues that arose in doing culturally anchored participatory action research are described. These included the development of a community of inquiry, key methodological decisions, the empowerment of participants as coresearchers, and flexibility in research implementation.

A collaborative research process engaging Alaska Native communities in the study of protective factors in Alaska Native sobriety and the design of a preventative intervention using its findings is described. Study 1 was discovery oriented qualitative research whose objectives were identification of protective factors and development of a heuristic model. Study 2 involved quantitative survey methods to develop and test ameasure of protective factors identified by the qualitative study. Empirical data from these studies is presented, and the role of Alaska Native co-researchers who did not possess specialist research training is described in the design and implementation of the study, interpretation of findings, and design of the intervention model and tools. Benefits that emerged from co-researcher involvement in this process, to the community and to the co-researchers themselves, are described.

Objectives. Community-based models have become increasingly prominent in prevention, and have special relevance for suicide prevention in circumpolar Indigenous communities. It follows that outcomes from circumpolar suicide prevention programs might be more completely understood at the community level. We present here a methodology for analysis at this level. This paper seeks to understand a cultural prevention program for rural Yup'ik youth in Alaska targeting suicide and co-occurring alcohol abuse as a community development process through changes at the community level. Study Design. Quasi-experimental design with assessment at pre-and post-intervention or at 4 time points. The community development process for this project began in October 2004. The first program baseline assessment began in November 2006, prior to prevention activities with youth and parents, and the post-intervention assessment concluded in March 2008. Methods. Five key informants pre-and post-intervention completed a community readiness assessment, which is a structured procedure assessing a community's awareness of suicide as an issue and its organizational readiness for prevention programming. Forty-three adult caregivers or sponsors of youth in the prevention program completed an assessment of behaviours that contributed to community protective factors from youth suicide and alcohol abuse at 4 time points before, during and after the intervention. The 54 youth who participated in the prevention program completed an assessment of community protective factors, also at 4 time points before, during and after the intervention. The community protective factors Evaluating youth suicide prevention at the community level from suicide that were assessed included safety, enforcement of alcohol prohibitions, role models, support and opportunities for youth. Results. Community readiness for the prevention efforts increased to new developmental stages of readiness post-intervention, and a trend in the data suggested community protective factors increased in the amount of protective behaviours performed by adults (slope estimate=0.0162, 95% CI-0.0028-0.0351, d=.55) and in the perceptions of youth (slope estimate=0.0148, 95% CI-0.0004-0.0291, d=.45), in a dose response relationship to the number of prevention program sessions attended by adults and youth. Conclusions. Using data from a feasibility study, this paper demonstrates the feasibility and potential utility of methodological approaches that use community-level variables beyond individual level outcomes in circumpolar suicide prevention research.