Seeking to help Native Communities
RAPID CITY – Dr. Arielle Deutsch, head of the Sanford Deutsch Lab and principal investigator for Project SYNCH, is originally from rural, upstate New York. After pursuing her career in research, she realized that a main interest of hers was marginalization, disadvantages, and how they intersect. She decided to move to South Dakota in 2017 because “Sanford provided an opportunity to make the research mean something,” she said.
Project SYNCH (Systems of Native Community Health) is now in its second year of research and has over 200 people that have been in some form of contact with the study. Project SYNCH is described on the Deutsch Lab website by saying “This study focuses on utilizing community-based system dynamic models to examine a) systems that facilitate and maintain levels of alcohol exposed pregnancy within Northern Plains American Indian communities, b) the role of intimate partner violence within these systems, and c) vulnerable areas of intervention that can result in full system change and reduction of alcohol exposed pregnancies.”
“The end result of this project is to be able to sit down with our community members where we say ‘ok, in looking at these things, here are the main areas that impact inter-partner violence and alcohol exposed pregnancy,” said Dr. Deutsch.
These findings will be portrayed in different mediums, but a simple, visual medium is a loop diagram which looks somewhat like a spider web. Within the web, one can see where inter-partner violence and alcohol exposed pregnancies stem from.
The study and the loop diagrams do not just focus on the negatives, but also the positive areas in people’s lives that steer away from inter-partner violence and alcohol exposed pregnancies. “If we present this as doom and gloom it does not show the whole story, it should be a story of strength and resilience,” said Dr. Deutsch. “Where are those strengths and protectors that are unique already in the system that we can make flourish throughout the entirety of the system? Trying to figure out those unique areas is a necessity.” Areas in the study that present a positive impact are kinship systems, the mentorship of elders, and connection to physical place.
The Deutsch Lab uses a “genes to geography” approach to their study which is described on the Lab’s website as a “multiple methodology approach that integrates methods from psychology, human development, behavior genetics, and systems science and community health.”
Participants who have contributed to the study have mainly been contacted through organizations within the target community. In order to keep anonymity, no identifying information was taken from the participants but a majority of them identified as American Indian and Alaska Native.
In group sessions, the participants created a loop diagram to show the relationship between inter-partner violence and alcohol misuse. The loop diagram was portrayed on a large whiteboard. A facilitator directed the sessions, recorded the findings, and created conversation when the group felt stuck.
Dr. Deutsch says that she is trying to make it beyond a research project, and that she really wants to create partnerships with people. “At the end of the day, this is not owned by me or Sanford, this is owned by Rapid City and its citizens,” She said. “Once we have a full model, we will be able to start figuring out the key areas of influence.” But most importantly, Dr. Deutsch says that the project “needs to be something that the people we work with are proud of.”
Before COVID-19 was spread across the US, Dr. Deutsch was in Rapid City at least once a month. Now the SYNCH team is conducting studies with participants over Zoom.
The project’s first academic paper is being reviewed currently, and will hopefully be published soon.
(Contact Travis at travisldewes@gmail.com)
Shared by: Native Sun News Today
June 4, 2020