Addressing Depression Among American Indians and Alaska Natives: A Literature Review

The purpose of this report is to highlight and review literature, programs and activities focused
on depression and other common mental health conditions in American Indian and Alaska
Native (AI/AN) communities in the United States. In 2010 the Urban Indian Health Institute
(UIHI) initiated its Health Equity Project in order to examine the health disparities affecting urban
AI/AN communities. This report represents a synthesis of academic (articles in scholarly,
typically peer-reviewed journals) and grey literature (from a variety of sources including
websites, online documents, government reports and presentations). This combination of
findings is uncommon in typical reviews of depression and mental health among AI/ANs, which
tend to focus on peer-reviewed academic literature.