Culture as Treatment: A Pathway toward Indigenous Health Equity

Abstract

In this paper, we report on the process by which health equity has historically been conceptualized from a western lens, continuing to leave behind Native Nations. We present how the historical context impacts the present day disparities experiences by Indigenous communities in the US. We conclude with examples of Indigenous culture as treatment as a pathway towards achieving Indigenous health equity.

Interdisciplinary perspectives on digital technologies for global mental health

“…Thus, although an overall influence of cultural adaptation of DMHTs on their effectiveness is suggested, it is not yet known which adaptation to which cultural differences is essential for the acceptance or effectiveness of DMHTs. In other cases, in which adaptation has not been deemed preferable and appropriate, such as in contexts involving decolonizing populations, experts have argued for the crucial importance of community-led and sovereign design, centering the health needs, agency, but also ontologies and epistemologies of oppressed user communities as necessary prerequisites to recovery [ 17 ].…”