Cultural Practices and Spiritual Development for Women in a Native American Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop an instrument that can be used to identify clients' readiness for spiritual development and its relationship with their participation in American Indian/Alaskan Native practices. Female clients and staff from Guiding Star, the female residential substance abuse program at Native American Connections in Phoenix, Arizona, participated in the study. Two focus groups (8 Native and 5 non-Native clients) were conducted to determine the clients' attitudes toward cultural practices. A Native cultural practitioner was interviewed regarding the clients' spiritual needs and development. Finally, a survey on attitudes toward issues related to spirituality was conducted with 51 female clients. Readiness for spiritual development was found to be positively related to a positive outlook on life, being religious, or participating in American Indian/Alaska Native cultural activities.

KEYWORDS:

• cultural practices
• Native Americans
• spirituality

Notes

^a 1 = none of the time; 2 = a little of the time; 3 = some of the time; 4 = most of the time; 5 = all of the time.

1 = none of the time; 2 = a little of the time; 3 = some of the time; 4 = most of the time; 5 = all of the time.

∗P < .05; ∗∗P < .001.

Funded by the Arizona Foundation for Behavioral Health. The Arizona Foundation for Behavioral Health awarded Native American Connections (NAC) to conduct the project in 2005. The authors thank all the participants, as well as NAC staff and administration for working on this project and providing assistance whenever possible. This project was conducted by the agency to investigate better ways to serve clients and follow policies and procedures approved by the Board of Directors of Native American Connections as well as the Arizona Department of Health Services.