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The American Indian Strengthening Families Program
In the Family Talking Circle, Joseph,
a Shawnee American Indian father breaks down in tears and
holds his 7 year old daughter, who has just disclosed that
her major fear is that her father will die and leave her
because of his drinking and driving. He went into treatment
the next day. 
This American Indian SFP program curriculum
was developed on a CSAP Children of Substance Abusing Parents
(COSAPs) grant headed by Dr. Collette Evans at Idaho State
University She has a doctoral degree from the University
of Utah and studied with Dr. Kumpfer. The cultural modifications
of SFP were made and tested at Fort Hall on the Shoshone-Bannock
Indian reservation. The program follows the basic format
of SFP, but added culturally-specific elements that matched
the objectives of the sessions. For instance, the opening
was changed to a prayer or smudge by tribal elder to call
for the blessings of the Creator on the group. The Family
Meetings were changed to Family Talking Circles with a talking
stick passed to the speaker to assure only one person speaks
at a time. The parent and children's sessions were also
conducted as Talking Circles. Flute and drum music was added
to the stress management session for the parents and kids
as well as the graduations. Stories were changed and new
ones added to be more culturally sensitive as was examples
of parenting practices. The trainers had to ask parents
to share, because individuals are not supposed to stand
out or answer questions right away, but it was ok to respond
if asked to by name. Recruitment was slow and difficult.
Gaining trust by the tribe takes time. Maintaining qualified
staff is also a problem in Indian community with people
moving to other places.
More than eight American Indian tribes
or urban communities in Oklahoma, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah,
Idaho, Iowa, Alaska, and New Mexico are implementing the
American Indian SFP version on Center for Substance Abuse
(CSAP) grants and making more local tribal modifications.
The results of these family strengthening initiative grants
are due in the fall of 2001. The two year grants were mainly
feasibility pilot studies, although they were mandated to
use standardized outcome measures for the CSAP cross-site
study.
Dr. Les Witbeck and June Smith at Iowa
State University have also developed an 8-session culturally-specific
SFP for Ojibway Indian families in Iowa and Wisconsin on
a NIDA grant. The 5 year results (Witbeck & Smith, 2001)
of this randomized control design was presented at the Society
for Prevention Research annual conference this year. The
researchers reported improvements in precursor risk and
protective factors, but no significant improvements in substance
abuse. The researchers suggest that cutting the SFP sessions
from 14 to 8 may have weakened program. They are planning
to lengthen the program and return the focus to behavioral
skills training. This program developed special materials
for their program, including a family board game being marketed
by the tribe.
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