Supporting Child Mental Health in the Robeson Lumbee Community

American Indian (AI) children are at greater risk of developing mental health problems

The Lumbee Tribe in Robeson County is engaged in on-going efforts to support community mental health. The Native Pathways to Health project, a work of nine AI communities in North Carolina including the Lumbee Tribe, identified community assets that are protective of good health such as family, community, relation to place and faith. They identified mental health programs, improved coordination of resources and community involvement as well as other issues that the community needs to be healthy. The Robeson County community also engaged in a multi-site trial to adapt and test a Keetoowah-Cherokee adolescent substance abuse prevention intervention by identifying relevant community resources to address health priorities.

Concurrently, the 2020 Robeson County Health Department assessment of adult and community health needs indicates that Robeson was North Carolina’s least healthy county. Community respondents identified obesity and substance misuse as their top health priorities, with mental health as a priority risk factor for poor health, affordability a leading barrier to access and literacy a leading issue undermining quality of care. The COVID pandemic undermined community health further. Little evidence is available to describe community strengths and needs regarding child mental health. As a result, community priorities for child mental health, baseline data to support next steps, and identified community/academic partners to further the work are currently unknown. The proposed project will lay a foundation to support new, preventive work on child mental health.

Project Leaders

This project will be lead by the following local Robeson County community members and UNC faculty.