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Purpose: The Family Care Conference (FCC) is an elder-focused, family-centered, community-based intervention for the prevention and mitigation of elder abuse. It is based on a family conference intervention developed by the Maori people of New Zealand, who determined that Western European ways of working with child welfare issues were undermining such family values as the definition and meaning of family, the importance of spirituality, the use of ritual, and the value of noninterference. The FCC provides the opportunity for family members to come together to discuss and develop a plan for the well-being of their elders. Design and Methods: Using a community-based participatory research approach, investigators piloted and implemented the FCC in one northwestern Native American community. The delivery of the FCC intervention has grown from having been introduced and facilitated by the researchers, to training community members to facilitate the family meetings, to becoming incorporated into a Tribal agency, which will oversee the implementation of the FCC. Results: To date, families have accepted and appreciated the FCC intervention. The constructive approach of the FCC process helps to bring focus to families' concerns and aligns their efforts toward positive action. Implications: The strength-based FCC provides a culturally anchored and individualized means of identifying frail Native American elders' needs and finding solutions from family and available community resources.

Conducting research with Native American communities poses special challenges from misunderstandings that may arise from the interface of differing cultural worldviews held by the scientific and the Native communities. Although the community-based participatory research approach shows promise for conducting research that can maximize benefits and minimize the risks of harm to Native American people, there is little information related to the practical implementation of culturally appropriate research practices when working with Native American communities. Drawing on the authors' research with three Native American communities in the Northwest, this article describes culturally appropriate processes for engaging Native American communities. The first section identifies and describes the principles that provide the foundation for the authors' research activity as a spiritual covenant and guides the authors' research with the three communities. The second section describes the project phase matrix that was used to organize the approaches employed in this work. Keywords: community-based participatory research; research methodology; action research; Native Americans; ethnogerontology

This article describes the experiences of six individuals employed as community-university research liaisons in a grant-funded centre for health disparities research. The liaisons were located in Native American communities and bridged the communities and the university, providing information between these groups, expanding understanding and knowledge of how research can address health disparities, and assisting in the development and ongoing work of partnerships using CBPR approaches. While tribal communities within the state may face similar health disparities, the approach to solving these disparities must be based on an understanding of the context and environment of the specific tribal community. In this paper, the tribal liaisons share their stories of negotiating and navigating their unique positions. Suggestions for utilizing tribal community-university positions to support community and partnership development are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the experiences of six individuals employed as community-university research liaisons in a grant-funded centre for health disparities research. The liaisons were located in Native American communities and bridged the communities and the university, providing information between these groups, expanding understanding and knowledge of how research can address health disparities, and assisting in the development and ongoing work of partnerships using CBPR approaches. While tribal communities within the state may face similar health disparities, the approach to solving these disparities must be based on an understanding of the context and environment of the specific tribal community. In this paper, the tribal liaisons share their stories of negotiating and navigating their unique positions. Suggestions for utilizing tribal community-university positions to support community and partnership development are offered.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR), with its emphasis on joining with the community as full and equal partners in all phases of the research process, makes it an appealing model for research with vulnerable populations. However, the CBPR approach is not without special challenges relating to ethical, cultural, and scientific issues. In this article, we describe how we managed the challenges we encountered while conducting a CBPR project with a Native American community. We also suggest criteria that will enable evaluation of the project.