Gary Bess New Journal Publication on AIAN Behavioral Health

Hello and Happy New Year from GBA! We hope everyone is well and everyone who celebrates had a great holiday.

We look forward to 2020 and keeping you informed of new developments relevant to the health care and human services fields and services for special populations. We start the year letting you know about a new paper published in BMC Public Health, entitled “Transforming through leadership: a qualitative study of successful American Indian Alaska Native behavioral health leaders.” Our principal Gary Bess was a contributing author for the article.

As stated in its abstract, effective leadership is vital in the struggle to decrease the behavioral health disparities between the US population and American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. AIAN communities have a pre-colonization history of highly effective leadership, yet some AIAN leadership traditions have been eradicated through decades of trauma and genocidal efforts. There is a paucity of research on AIAN public health leadership, and most existing research relies on samples of individuals holding leadership positions rather than individuals purposely selected because of their effectiveness. The aim of the study was to investigate the experiences of successful AIAN behavioral health leaders and present an emerging AIAN public health leadership model. The study included eight public health leaders, observed over the course of three years. Its analysis resulted in the identification of 10 themes. Click here for the full article for a presentation and discussion of these themes.

We look forward to serving you further in 2020!

Read the full journal article here.