Nen ŨnkUmbi/EdaHiYedo Plus (NE+): a Multi-level Intervention to Reduce Health Disparities Among American Indian Youth

Summary

We Are Here Now - Plus (NE+) is a holistic, culturally centered, and multilevel intervention for American Indian youth to improve sexual health, mental health, and substance use outcomes. The goal of this intervention is to learn if NE+ can decrease substance use during sex, decrease sexual activity, increase condom use, increase positive mental health, increase caregiver(parent)-youth communication, increase communication between school personnel and youth, and increase utilization of clinical services. Researchers will compare one intervention arm to one control arm to see if the aforementioned indicators improve among the intervention arm for youth participants. Youth participants (ages 12-18) will participate in a 9-month educational program consisting of 18 modules that discuss healthy relationships, puberty \& physiology (separate girls \& boys), parenting, pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention, sexual avoidant behaviors with a focus on abstinence, substance use prevention with a focus on abstinence and refusal skills, \& positive mental health, resources; skills (high school)- self-efficacy, refusal skills, decision making, communication, abstinence; skills (middle school) - health knowledge, self-efficacy, boundaries, communication, abstinence. Youth will also participate in six teachings offered by local cultural leaders that coincide with educational modules, including: kinship networks \& family; cultural values; 7 sacred roles of tribal members; ceremonies; cultural teachings and responsibilities of women \& men in tribe \& ceremonies; Indigenous worldview; skills - knowledge of traditional ways, language \& cultural people to go to for help; community members roles \& responsibilities in tribe \& ceremonies. Caregiver (parent) participants will participate in three in-person visits/meetings to discuss the following: visit 1 - age specific physical, cognitive, emotional, spiritual development; visit 2: prevention of substance use, promoting positive mental health, promotion of healthy relationships; skills -communication with youth; visit 3 - pregnancy and STIs/HIV prevention and abstinence from sex, parental monitoring, tribal resources. School personnel participants will participate in three workshops during teacher in-service training days, including the following information: Workshop 1 - cultural teachings on kinship \& family networks, cultural values, cultural age \& community roles; Workshop 2 - sexual risk avoidant behaviors, substance use prevention, positive mental health promotion, pregnancy STIs/HIV prevention, tribal resources; Workshop 3 - culturally respectful communication skills by age \& youth (boy/girl) and age \& caregiver (male/female); skills - knowledge of cultural ways, substance use prevention, positive mental health promotion, sexual risk avoidant behaviors, culturally respectful communication.