Does the American Psychological Association’s Code of Ethics work for us?

The following article evaluates the efficacy of the American Psychological Association\u27s (APA) Code of Ethics for Indigenous people. The paper reviews the Society of Indian Psychologists recent work on creating a commentary to the APA code, as well as a panel discussion by key stakeholders of the four ethnic psychological associations at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association and a similar panel discussion at the United Nations. The consensus remains that key indigenous values and principles are lacking in the current APA code that prevent it from being adequate for the needs of indigenous people. Dialogue continues with APA in hopes of making the code more relevant to Indigenous people

Assessing the Psychometric Properties of the WHO-DAS 2.0 in an American Indian Community

American Indians and Alaska Natives report disability at rates higher than the general United States population. This disproportionate prevalence of disability warrants further investigation. We therefore administered the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule (WHODAS 2.0) to 119 Akwesasne Mohawk adults over 50 years of age residing along the St. Lawrence River in New York. We used exploratory factor analysis to summarize the 36-items comprising the WHODAS 2.0. The 7 factors retained by the analyses correspond to the 6 summary domains of disability, suggesting that the data are sound and measure the intended constructs. Our assessment concludes that WHODAS 2.0 is a valid tool for assessing disability within this American Indian population

Environmental Toxins and Depression in an American Indian Community

Abstract Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a public health problem affecting many minority communities. We examined relationships between PCBs and depression among 306 adults on the Akwesasne Reservation (68% females; 18-79 years) exposed to PCBs through industrial contamination. Blood was collected to measure total PCB levels, which also were categorized based on level of chlorination and dioxin-like structure. The Center for Epidemiology Studies of Depression (CES-D) scale scores increased as terciles of measured PCB blood level increased, though increases were not significant (p\u3e0.05). While there are documented health effects of PCBs, these results, consistent with one previous study, demonstrate depression is not associated with PCB exposure. Further study of the mechanisms for successfully coping with such adverse circumstances is warranted