The Family Education Diabetes Series: Improving Health in an Urban-dwelling American Indian Community Through Community-based Participatory Research

Presented by: Tai Mendenhall and Betty GreenCrow

The Family Education Diabetes Series (FEDS) is an innovative program that was created through the collaborative efforts of Minnesota's American Indian community and local healthcare professionals to improve the lives of Native people. Presenters will describe the FEDS' growth and evolution, alongside the dynamic range of educational and community-based work that it encompasses. They will share formal evaluative data across physiological-, knowledge-, behavioral- foci, and outline lessons-learned and next-steps for participants as they endeavor to extend the scope and application of this work to (and with) other urban-dwelling groups who are struggling with health disparities.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Identify key tenets of community-based participatory research (CBPR) oriented to health and family health care.

2. Outline how the Family Education Diabetes Series (FEDS) is a CBPR initiative created through the collaborative efforts of Western providers and American Indian community members to improve the lives of urban-dwelling adult AIs and their families who live with diabetes.

3. Communicate understanding of evaluative findings regarding FEDS' participants' change across physiological (A1c; weight, blood pressure), knowledge (regarding key facts and information about diabetes and diabetes care), and disease management (exercise, blood sugar monitoring, dietary compliance) dependent variables.

4. Summarize key lessons and strategies regarding how to explore and initiate health-oriented CBPR in partnership(s) with minority and underserved populations.

Tai Mendenhall, Ph.D., LMFT, University of Minnesota, and Betty GreenCrow, MSW, Council of American Indian Elders