Utilization of a Psychiatric-Social Work Team in an Alaskan Native Secondary Boarding School: A Five-Year Review

Abstract

A review of 5 years of psychiatric consultation and social work at an Alaskan secondary boarding school for Eskimo, Aleut, and Indian students reveals that although the majority of the students come from small homogeneous villages, the majority of “troublesome” students come from larger heterogeneous communities. These students tend to act out while drinking, inhibiting their own and others' educational goals. Students from small villages have problems of equal intensity, but are more apt to exhibit the “quieter,” more readily recognizable signs of anxiety and depression. In the earlier years of the mental health program or prior to its existence, the students from this group accounted for a number of suicide attempts, now rare occurrences. It is postulated that the students from the larger heterogeneous communities have a diminished sense of identity because of the family move from the small village to larger, mixed communities where the existing population looks well established. Since these “well-settled” neighbors are frequently demonstrating their difficulties in cultural adaptation by alcoholism and semi-delinquent behavior, many newly arrived adolescents identify with the aggressive quality of the behavior. A number of students with this background continue the acting out for other students in the dormitory. The mental health program has been predicated on strengthening identity of students and staff, since staff, particularly Native staff, tend to be models of identification for the students. Results of the mental health team effort include a marked decrease of the dropout, expulsion, and suicide attempt rates.