# Assessing Cultures of Recovery in Tribal Communities - Pilot Project 1: Understanding Relapse among Tribal Youth

> **NIH NIH S06** · HEALING LODGE OF THE SEVEN NATIONS · 2024 · $34,351

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Understanding common risk and protective factors for relapse among American Indian/Alaskan Native
(AI/AN) adolescents in recovery from substance use disorders is essential for ensuring that relapse prevention
programming is authentic, relevant, culturally appropriate, and effective. The overall goals for this Pilot Project
are to (1) gain an in-depth understanding of the intrapersonal and interpersonal determinants of relapse among
AI/AN youth in recovery from addiction by surveying consecutively-admitted AI/AN adolescent residents of the
Healing Lodge of the Seven Nations (HL); (2) for the first time at the HL, integrate information collected as part
of routine clinical services with original survey data to advance clinical research; and (3) engage in a variety of
knowledge translation/research dissemination activities designed to return knowledge gained to AI/AN
adolescents’ care communities. We will invite three cohorts of approximately 15 AI/AN HL residents to take
part in a survey that assesses key demographics (i.e., age, gender, tribal reservation residence status),
situational precursors to relapse (i.e., trigger experiences, crisis experiences, other potential missed
intervention points), social community supports/networks, and intrapersonal characteristics (i.e., coping skills).
We will follow a Tribal Participatory Research approach, whereby we will solicit the feedback regarding the
research plan and instrumentation from a Working Group composed of representatives from seven surrounding
tribal nations. Therefore, the final form of the survey will reflect the interests and perceived needs of tribal
partners. We will combine survey information with relevant clinical information about HL residents, particularly
comorbid psychiatric conditions and relapse history, collected at intake. We will describe the prevalence of risk
and protective factors shared by AI/AN youth in the aggregate and supplement these descriptive analyses with
subgroup analyses designed to explore potential interactions among measured variables, to advance tailored
aftercare approaches designed to support AI/AN adolescents after they return to their home communities and
work to maintain their recovery. We will employ best practices for conveying and disseminating research
findings to a broad audience, which will include the Working Group, tribal councils, HL residents, and, perhaps
most importantly, key HL staff including aftercare specialists. This Pilot Project will provide the foundation for a
set of guided research experiences that will build professional clinical research capacity at the newly
established Healing Lodge Research and Training Unit.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10930037
- **Project number:** 5S06GM146095-03
- **Recipient organization:** HEALING LODGE OF THE SEVEN NATIONS
- **Principal Investigator:** Timothy C Edson
- **Activity code:** S06 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $34,351
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-20 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10930037

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10930037, Assessing Cultures of Recovery in Tribal Communities - Pilot Project 1: Understanding Relapse among Tribal Youth (5S06GM146095-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10930037. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*