Advance Care Planning Among American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Peoples

In this article the authors report survey results from Title VI directors regarding how AI/AN/NHs learn about ACP. Most participants reported that less than a quarter of older AI/AN/NHs had an advance care plan and that most congregate meal sites would be open to providing ACP information.

Click HERE to read the article on the ASA Generations website

American Indian & Alaska Native Grandfamilies: Helping Children Thrive Through Connection to Family and Cultural Identity

Both inside and outside the foster care system, American Indian and Alaska Native children are more likely to live in grandfamilies—families in which grandparents, other adult family members or close family friends are raising children with no parents in the home—than any other racial or ethnic group.

Over the last few decades, drug epidemics, natural disasters and other tragedies have both created grandfamilies and challenged existing ones. The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest crisis to have elevated the needs of these families, and in particular the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native families, who are being disproportionally impacted by the pandemic. The rates of infection and death are staggering. For example, as of early May 2020 in the Navajo Nation, the mortality and infection rates are higher than the vast majority of states.

This toolkit is designed to give resources and tips to child welfare agencies, other government agencies and nonprofit organizations, so they can better serve all American Indian and Alaska Native grandfamilies regardless of child welfare involvement. It will explore some unique strengths and challenges of these grandfamilies, which agencies and organizations need to recognize in order to provide culturally appropriate supportive services.