Three Yale Department of Psychiatry faculty have established a research, training, and clinical care partnership with a Tribal medical health organization that serves residents of Southeast Alaska.
Maria Crouch, PhD; Joan Cook, PhD; and Stephanie O’Malley, PhD, visited Alaska in June to develop their collaboration with SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC). The three scientists will work with SEARHC in research, training and staff development, clinical care improvements and culturally congruent interventions, and community partnerships.
On their trip, Crouch, assistant professor adjunct in psychiatry, and Cook, Albert E. Kent Professor of Psychiatry, provided day-long experiential training in person to clinical staff about evidenced-based trauma treatments. The trainings were held in Juneau, Alaska’s capital, and in the remote, rural Alaska Native village of Wrangell, about 210 miles south.
Cook has been instrumental in informing suicide and trauma interventions and for increasing clinical expertise of the behavioral health workforce.
O’Malley, Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, conducted evidence-based treatment training for substance use disorder for the substance use staff across the consortium while in Juneau.
Crouch said that O’Malley, through her mentorship, has helped her evaluate community needs and clarify potential community-based research collaborations in Alaska.
O’Malley has worked with the Alaska Native community before. She led the first and to-date only Naltrexone study in the state and has continued to support the Alaska Native community through her research.
Crouch’s clinical work and research is focused on addressing alcohol and drug misuse and related health impacts of social determinants among American Indian and Alaska Native communities from a cultural, strengths-based approach. Currently she is leading a suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention program for the remote Alaskan village of Prince of Wales Island.
During their trip, Crouch, Cook, and O’Malley attended a traditional Tlingit Alaska Native ceremony for honoring ancestors and grieving, called a Khu.éex'. The ceremony honored the late Ethel Lund, an Indigenous woman and trailblazer who helped to build the health system in Southeast Alaska.
In Juneau they attended Celebration, a large biennial festival of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian Alaska Native cultures, featuring traditional dances, cultural activities, and an Alaska Native art and items market.