Principal Investigator: Donovan, Dennis M PhD      
PI Title: Director, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute ; Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
PI Department: Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute
Co-Investigator: Thomas, Lisa Rey, PhD
Short Name: Healing the Canoe
Date: September 30, 2005 - June 30, 2008
Sponsor: National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (R24 MD001764)
Categories: Clinical and Health Services

The "Healing of the Canoe" is a collaborative project between the Suquamish Tribe and the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, University of Washington. The overall goal of this collaboration is to work in partnership to plan, implement, and evaluate a community-based and culturally congruent intervention to reduce health disparities and promote health in the Suquamish Tribe, a federally recognized American Indian/Alaska Native reservation community located in the Pacific Northwest. This three-year planning project will proceed in two phases. Phase 1 will take place in Year 1 and is devoted to partnership development, conducting community needs and resources assessment, identification of health issues of concern for the Suquamish community, and identifying, planning, and adapting a community based intervention to address the identified health issue(s). Phase 2 will take place in Years 2 and 3 and will be devoted to piloting and evaluating the intervention. A Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) methodology will be utilized, involving the community in each aspect of the planning and implementation of the intervention. In addition, a Suquamish Tribal member will serve as a Co-Investigator, and community members will serve as key personnel. Both outcome and process data will be collected to determine feasibility, applicability and to develop a model that other Community-Campus partnerships can utilize to work collaboratively to identify and reduce health disparities in ethnically, culturally, socioeconomically, and geographically diverse populations.

Project Staff:
Lisette Austin, PhD; Heather Lonczak, PhD

Related Web Sites:
http://adai.washington.edu/canoe/