Centering Indigenous Knowledges and Worldviews: Applying the Indigenist Ecological Systems Model to Youth Mental Health and Wellness Research and Programs

Abstract

Globally, Indigenous communities, leaders, mental health providers, and scholars have called for strengths-based approaches to mental health that align with Indigenous and holistic concepts of health and wellness. We applied the Indigenist Ecological Systems Model to strengths-based case examples of Indigenous youth mental health and wellness work occurring in CANZUS (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and United States). The case examples include research, community-led programs, and national advocacy. Indigenous youth development and well-being occur through strengths-based relationships across interconnected environmental levels. This approach promotes Indigenous youth and communities considering complete ecologies of Indigenous youth to foster their whole health, including mental health. Future research and programming will benefit from understanding and identifying common, strengths-based solutions beyond narrow intervention targets. This approach not only promotes Indigenous youth health and mental health, but ripples out across the entire ecosystem to promote community well-being.

Development and Cultural Adaptation of Psychological First Aid for COVID-19 Frontline Workers in American Indian/Alaska Native Communities

“…Additionally, for many Indigenous communities, well-being (including mental well-being) of individuals and families is inherently connected to holistic community health (Ullrich, 2019 ). Within Indigenous communities, mental health is interconnected with physical health, emotional health, and spiritual health, and is tied to relationships at multiple levels (O’Keefe et al, 2022 ). From this understanding, when networks of individuals and community members are supported with this PFA resource, it could contribute to wider well-being for entire communities.…”

Conceptualizing Indigenous strengths-based health and wellness research using group concept mapping

“…This study responds to calls for the incorporation and definition of strengths-based Indigenous models of health and well-being, which are virtually non-existent within public health and medical research currently [ 3 , 8 , 19 ]. Indeed, only recently has colonization been acknowledged as a fundamental social determinant of health [ 35 ] despite decades of advocacy by Indigenous scholars to decolonize health research [ 4 , 36 ].…”

“…Most of these approaches (i.e., positive psychology, resilience, social-ecological model) fall short in conceptualizing and understanding Indigenous strengths due to their emphasis on individualism and the lack of attention to social, historical, and cultural contexts. Indigenous scholars argue that both resilience and social-ecological approaches are largely informed by Eurocentric concepts of individuality which often ultimately emphasize deficits or are rooted in response to adversity [ 3 , 5 , 8 , 17 , 18 ]. In contrast, Indigenous knowledges suggest that health promotion, well-being, and flourishing exists within and beyond the individual [ 19 ].…”

“…There continues to be calls for a shift in gaze from individual level determinants of health to broader system determinants of Indigenous Peoples health including oppressive histories, policies, and practices that remain unaddressed including that of colonization [ 5 – 7 ]. Although relevant and important to address, Indigenous communities also carry strengths, wellness, and wisdom to resist, survive, heal, and persist despite the systemic pressures to disconnect from culture, spirit, and wholistic collectivism [ 8 , 9 ]. These strengths and assets within Indigenous Nations are well delineated at the community level; however, a definition or framework for an “Indigenous strengths-based approach to health and wellness research” specifically has yet to be clearly translated.…”

“… Inside of my home, I was getting a full dose of culture”: Exploring the ecology of Indigenous peoples’ development through stories.

“…On their own, each of these environments could constitute an immediate environment, but it is their interactions with another immediate environment that transform them into a surrounding environment. For instance, the relationship that an Indigenous person’s health care clinic has—or does not have—with their tribal nation would likely affect an individual’s care in one way or another (O’Keefe et al, 2022). While a lack of or negative relationship between immediate environments has proven to be detrimental (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), the inverse is also true.…”