Developing Community Partnerships Through Research to Define Community Well-Being With Three (Diné) Navajo Communities

Study Summary

This community engaged research pilot project begins a process of engaging Navajo community members from the communities of Counselor, Ojo Encino, and Torreon chapters in northwest New Mexico in critical dialogue and praxis to address longstanding health disparities. The research design is based on a Tribal Crit theoretical framework that aims to explore the perspectives of community members' understandings of wellbeing from a Diné centered paradigm using a community based participatory research approach integrated with a Diné-centered scientific research methodology. The proposed aims include using the Diné conceptualization of K'é (kinship) to define community wellbeing with future plans to build upon this knowledge by developing a community profile survey for obtaining baseline community health information that can be used to inform future research studies. A long-term goal of this mixed-method, community-based participatory research (CBPR) study is to create a community-university research partnership in an Indigenous context by establishing a multi-dimensional, Diné-centered research infrastructure with the capacity to improve mental/behavioral health outcomes and reduce health disparities. The creation of this infrastructure is a critical first step that will make it possible to use health research to positively transform the health landscape in Indigenous communities

Interventions

• OTHER Community engaged research