Factores que afectan el número de microorganismos

Strengthening cultural identity can be a positive action for the participant.58 _{Traditional healing}

practices provide the foundation for Wellness Court programs. Culturally responsive behavioral health counseling results in greater counselor credibility, better client satisfaction, more client self-disclosure, and greater willingness among clients to continue with counseling.59

Consideration of culture is important in all activities and at every treatment phase: outreach, initial contact, screening, assessment, placement, treatment, continuing care and recovery services, research, and education.60

These can be augmented, as appropriate, with Western drug court treatment approaches, as will be discussed further in the following sections of this guideline. Any adaptation of Western drug court treatment approaches should be specifically tailored to the Native communities and participants involved. The resulting Healing to Wellness Court will then combine current

science-based approaches to treatment developed in the Western-style drug court programs with accepted established traditional practices.

The philosophy that underlies Native healing practices is rooted in several Native concepts, including the following:

• Recognition that healing is an ongoing process that occurs within the individual;

• Experts may test, ask questions, and perform other diagnostic functions but the healing process must occur within the individual;

• We can heal ourselves;

• Prayer plays a critical role—as a source of strength and support—in the healing process;

• It is important to be able to tell one’s story, to overcome denial;

• It is important for one to take responsibility for one’s actions;

• One’s sense of communal solidarity plays a significant role in healing—it is therefore very important for the individual to reconnect with the community;

• Respect for each other is crucial; individuals must both listen to others and be heard;

• One’s sense of feeling connected with the community is very important; and

• Healing is an ongoing process that occurs one day at a time.

Adapting Western drug court treatment approaches to the Wellness Court therefore requires considering how these approaches best function in a Wellness Court setting. Individual counseling, for example, might be most appropriately provided or supplemented in certain situations by an elder. Group counseling might best occur in a talking circle; support groups might take place in the sweat lodge. Participants and their families should also be encouraged to participate in ongoing traditional activities—ceremonies, initiations, and other tribal

practices. Native healing practices that might be integrated with Western drug court treatment

58 _{TIP 59 at 173.} 59 _{Id. at 2.} 60 _{Id. at 4.}

IV. Developing a Wellness Court Treatment Program B. Tribal Healing Practices as the Foundation

approaches could include:

• Use ceremony to promote spiritual healing;

• Include clan relatives, elders, medicine men, and others as healers, mentors, and advisors to participants;

• Discuss the historical use and impact of alcohol and drugs on Native communities;

• Include participation in ceremonial preparations as part of the Wellness Court activities;

• Encourage ceremonial participation;

• Use meaningful symbols of healing, such as the medicine wheel, an eagle feather, and/or other tribal objects as part of Wellness Court activities;

• Include prayer, dance, and song in Wellness Court;

• Provide opportunities for participants to reconnect with the natural world through hunting, gathering, ranching, farming, equestrian, and other activities and ceremonies related to subsistence;

• Use nature walks to discuss the interconnectedness of life. Thoughts should be of appreciation of the nature around you. Experience your environment. During this walk, find objects that you want to put in your medicine bag;

• Incorporate tribal cleansing rituals, such as smudging with sage, as part of the Wellness Court hearings; and

• Incorporate drumming in Wellness Courts, and/or encourage participants to learn drumming or singing as a satisfaction of Wellness Court requirements.

The following can be posted in the Treatment Group Room or recited after or before groups start, for example.

Indian Ten Commandments

Treat the earth and all that dwell thereon with respect Remain close to the Great Spirit

Show great respect for your fellow beings Work together for the benefit of all mankind Give assistance and kindness wherever it is needed Do what you know to be right

Look after the wellbeing of mind and body

Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good Be truthful and honest at all times

Take full responsibility for all your actions

A Prayer

May it be beautiful before me.

May it be beautiful behind me.

IV. Developing a Wellness Court Treatment Program B. Tribal Healing Practices as the Foundation around me. In beauty It is finished; In beauty It is finished.

—Traditional Dine (Navajo chant)

A Prayer

Oh Great Spirit, Whose voice I hear in the wind, Whose breath gives me life to the world, Hear Me! I come to You as one of Your many children. I am small and weak. I need Your strength and wisdom. May I walk in beauty. Make my eyes behold the red and the purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things that You have made, and my ears sharp to hear Your voice. Make me wise so that I may know the things that You have taught your children—the lessons that You have hidden in every leaf and rock. Make me strong, not to be superior to my brothers, but to be able to fight my greatest enemy: myself. Make me ever ready to come to You with straight eyes, so that when life fades as the faded sunset my spirit will come to You without shame. —John Yellow Lark

Consider The Red Road to Wellbriety in the Native American Way, a sobriety, recovery, and wellness book for Native Americans, following the teachings of the Native American Medicine Wheel and 12-step tradition.

IV. Developing a Wellness Court Treatment Program C. Adult vs. Juvenile Wellness Courts