Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH)

The Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health is a University Partner Participant in the Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) Grant funded by Indian Health Service and the National Institutes of Health.  NARCH is a cooperative program to fund developmental and pilot research activities and research training at Tribes, Tribal Organizations, and Indian Health Boards. The purpose of the NARCH grants are to:

1. To develop a cadre of AI/AN scientists and health professionals engaged in biomedical, clinical, behavioral and health services research who will be competitive in securing National Institutes of health funding;

2. To increase the capacity of both research-intensive institutions and AI/AN organizations to work in partnership to reduce distrust by AI/AN communities and people toward research; and

3. Encourage competitive research linked to the health priorities of the AI/AN organizations and to reducing health disparities. These purposes will be achieved by supporting student development projects, faculty/researcher development projects, and research projects (including pilot projects) developed by each NARCH partnership.

Currently, the Center for American Indian Health works as the University partner to provide research, training and technical assistance to several tribes and tribal health organizations including the White Mountain Apache tribe.  Each specific NARCH partnership and projects is briefly described below.

White Mountain Apache Tribe

The White Mountain Apache Tribe (WMAT) has also contracted the Center for a NARCH grant.  The WMAT and Center have worked in partnership for more than 25 years and have achieved measurable reductions in tribal health disparities through a jointly conceived research and training model that has employed and provided health education to more than 90 White Mountain Apache tribal members over the past two decades. The NARCH initiative has provided the resources and supporting network to build infrastructure and capacity for White Mountain Apaches to work with JHU researcher-mentors to address the priority health problems of the WMAT, while simultaneously training the next generation of Apache research scientists who will run competitive research initiatives in the future.

Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Arctic Investigations Program (past partnership)

In 2003, the Center partnered with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and the Arctic Investigations Program—CDC both in Anchorage, Alaska on a study to evaluate pneumococcal disease epidemiology and vaccination in Alaska Native adults.  The long-term objective of the study was to reduce pneumococcal infections among Alaska Native adults, a group with high rates of invasive pneumococcal disease. 

Specific NARCH projects include:

-Reducing pneumococcal disease among White Mountain Apache families, and by extension other communities, by implementing the most effective pneumococcal vaccine strategy available. 

- Training and employing WMAT and other Native American Tribal members.  JHU’s approach has been distinct in two ways:  they have simultaneously employed and provided on-the-job training in public health sciences for Native people involved in local research and service projects; and they have offered on-reservation training to large groups of Native people at no expense to tribes in either tuition fees or travel/accommodation costs, often engaging the locally trained outreach workers in these community education efforts.  This training/employment strategy represents a creative means for overcoming the substantial familial, cultural, and economic barriers Indian people face in attending off reservation academic institutions.  A large part of the training component involves White Mountain Apache tribal members taking coursework at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD. 

-The White Mountain Apache Tribe and Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health Native American Research Center in Health proposes to employ community-based, participatory research methods to design and implement the “Celebrating Life” Apache Youth Suicide Research and Prevention Program for the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Whiteriver, Arizona.  Rates of suicide among youth and young adults on the White Mountain Apache Reservation have been among the highest in the U.S. of any ethnic group in the past decade.  The White Mountain Apache and Johns Hopkins have collaborated for more than 25 years in addressing the health and social priorities of the Tribe, with findings from past work generalized across Indian country and the world. To develop the “Celebrating Life” Program we will:

1. Develop a surveillance and data collection system for the evaluation of suicidal behavior on the White Mountain Apache Reservation;

2. Collect and analyze data from young suicide attempters (<19 years old) to identify key characteristics and determinants of suicidal behavior in this age group,

3. Engage community experts in the development a suicide prevention program that utilizes empirically supported prevention intervention strategies to target key determinants and characteristics in at risk Apache youth, and  

4. Develop a NIH grant proposal to test the efficacy of the Youth Suicide Prevention Program developed during the period of this award. The outcomes of this work will provide important models for other communities battling this increasing problem among adolescents and young adults.

-  WMAT members receive intense course work trainings at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD. 

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon (past partnership)

In 2004, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon contracted the Center for research methods technical assistance.  Thus far, the Center has provided onsite technical assistance for the tribe’s research teams and early career scientists.  The Center intends to further assist the tribes with data management for the duration of their studies.

For more information on all programs, please contact Olivia Sloan at osloan@jhsph.edu or Cathie Frazier at cfrazier@jhsph.edu or by phone at 410-955-6931.