An Interview with AAIP President Dr. Jim Thompson

TC: The conversation about mental health issues in this country is relatively new, and Tipper Gore certainly helped to advance mental health awareness. Is this area of health a conversation that is also now beginning to appear in Indian Country?

JT: I think so, but not that it wasn't there before. Many years ago, there was a move to enhance mental health in the Indian Health Service, and that was actually successful, and so there are a number of programs now. But in terms of openly discussing mental disorders and substance abuse issues, this is relatively recent. In terms of discussing mental disorders in the larger society, Roslyn Carter certainly was a big proponent, and certainly Tipper Gore was an equally important person. Because of their work and that of others, I do think discussing mental disorders is starting to be desensitized so that health care providers are asking patients about symptoms of depression and substance abuse and really trying to get a handle on that. Another important factor was the U.S. Surgeon General's report on health disparities, and there was a special report on mental health, and the rallying cry was "if you have symptoms seek treatment". That's certainly the message we want to give Indian people as well.

Interestingly, once you start talking with Indian people about these conditions, I think they have an easier time understanding it because to Indian people, in terms of cosmology, tend not to separate the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of being. If you can couch it in those terms, Indian people have an easy time understanding that there might be something wrong with their spirit or their thinking. Indian people have very strong beliefs in and affinity to cultural healing, and many Indians will go to medicine men or medicine women for their care there, but they'll also go to the Western medicine as well. Indian people can be quite pragmatic in that way.

TC: Dr. Terry Maresca, a Mohawk physician who practices in Seattle, speaks of her healing practice in much the same way that she combines a Western approach with traditional approaches that might include herbal remedies.

JT: Actually, a number of our members practice in this way. Also, AAIP has sponsored some programs on trying to make that connection. Dr. David Baines, who is in Alaska now, ran a number of workshops where he brings a medicine man together with a Western physician, who is also an Indian, to talk about an integrated approach to a patient. These workshops have been presented primarily to primary care doctors. We would like to do more of that.