A number of years ago, I asked Fran Ulmer, Chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission (USARC), to facilitate a conversation among Chugachmiut (the organization I was leading), with the University of Alaska and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC. We had a number of meetings that at least served to introduce the University of Alaska to the Adverse Childhood Experience Study and fostered one small research grant. Participants in that meeting are now well placed throughout the state.
USARC recently held a meeting to discuss Mental Health in the Arctic, and the story from the Alaska Dispatch News refers to Dr. Melissa Kemberling about the ACE study and an assessment completed by her current employer, the MatSu Foundation. Dr. Kemberling was with ANTHC during the meetings and as I recall was a participant. As you can tell from the Agenda, there is dissemination of information and somewhat of a scholarly discussion of alternative methods to address the issues. No comprehensive program to address the issues has been proposed, but the discussions are reaching a higher level in Alaska than ever before.
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