Teaching American Indian Children about Mental Illness: Developing a Culturally Sensitive Curriculum about the Science of Mental Illness Rebecca K. Dogan, MA, PLMHP William J. Warzak, PhD Maurice Godfrey, PhD Munroe–Meyer Institute and The Department of Pediatrics University of Nebraska Medical Center Background The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has established a program to provide science education to children K-12. Entitled, "Science Education Partnership Award" (SEPA). This program funds initiatives throughout the country. Since 2005, Maurice Godfrey, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), has served as Principal Investigator for a SEPA program entitled: Breaking Barriers: Health Science Education in Native American Communities. Through the efforts of Dr. Godfrey and colleagues, initiatives to enhance science education have Rebecca K. Dogan, MA, been provided to teachers and students in some sixteen schools on six Indian reservations in Nebraska and South Dakota. In 2009, NIH provided a supplement to the primary SEPA award to address issues related to mental illness and healthy behaviors. With William Warzak, PhD, Professor of clinical psychology at Monroe-Meyer Institute, UNMC, serving as Co-PI, we adapted curricula initially developed by the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study (BSCS), an NIH/NIMH supported non-profit program that is focused on designing educational science curricula Through the efforts of Dr. for teachers and students. Our primary curriculum, G o d frey a n d c o lle a g u e s , The Science of Mental Illness, strives to enable initiatives to enhance science students to make informed decisions regarding their education have been provided to own health and the health of others in the teachers and students in some community by providing information about the sixteen schools on six Indian reservations in Nebraska and science underpinning mental health and mental South Dakota. illness. Given the NIH initiative, the goal of the current project was to develop a mental health curriculum sensitive to American Indian values.
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