Recent UWB Alums Publish Systematic Review on Representations of Indigeneity in the Mental Health Literature

Recent UW Bothell alums Jeremie Walls and Mikyla Sakurai published a systematic review of how Indigeneity (i.e., what it means to be Indigenous) has been routinely misrepresented in recent mental health research publications about suicide among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Working as part of the UW Bothell Indigenous Mental Health Research Training Experience, together with Corinna Kruger (UW Seattle MSW program alum) and William Hartmann (IAS faculty supervisor), Walls and Sakurai helped analyze all mental health publications on this topic from 2010-2020 and identified several troubling trends “that homogenize Native peoples through the terms used and generalizations made, that racialize Native peoples as an ethnoracial minority group within the U.S., and that pathologize Native peoples by emphasizing health risks and vulnerabilities to the exclusion of Native strengths, resources, and resistance.” They also contributed recommendations for future mental health research with Native peoples and for Native community leaders interested in navigating the mental health literature as a potential resource for addressing concerns about suicide and mental health.

This work was conducted in collaboration with several other Native students and faculty from institutions across the U.S., and it was financially supported by the UW Royalty Research Scholar Fund and the IAS Student Employee Fund.