Mitakuye Oyasin:

1
Mitakuye Oyasin (We are all related) An
Unfolding Story of Connections for Diabetes Care
and Prevention
Dawn Satterfield Chris Burd John Eagle Shield


2
All things are connected
3
C.H.W. Core Roles

• Cultural mediating between communities health/
  human services system
• Assuring people get the services they need
• Building individual community capacity
• 
  National CHA Study, U. AZ, 1998

4
Community Health Workers
connected
communicators
commited
community advocates
caring
creative
collaborators
cemented in their communities
5
I Want to Help my People Lakota and Dakota
CHRs, 1999

•   
• From the job came a concern for my people.
• I didnt know my people were so sickly with
  diabetes.
• People on dialysis talk to me -- If I had only
  known.
• Weve got to think about our children and
  grandchildren.
• We need prevention here.
• I want to help my people.
• We try again and again then sometimes there's
  a little change.
• She gets outside and starts moving around.
• Just yesterday, he got off insulin and onto a
  pill.
• We did it! She switched to diet pop!
• Thats rewardingrewarding.rewarding
• I want to help my people.
•  
• We should tell our youth, No, diabetes doesnt
  have to happen to you.
• We know how to prevent these long-term illnesses.
• Lets commit again to our traditional ways of
  living,
• A life of balance, of people walking together on
  the same path.

• I am a representative of my community.
• I am a representative for health.
• I believe in my Creator.
• I see it as a calling.
• This is what Im supposed to do.
• I want to help my people.
•  
• My own life has to have balance or nobody will
  believe me.
• Im not better than anybody else.
• I ask for forgiveness.
• I have to have a clean frame of mind.
• I pray to say the right things.
• I want to help my people.
•   
• Its this idea of helping people.
• People trust me.
• They come to me in need.
• Im there for everyone.

Dedicated to Eugene Parter, a veteran CHR who put
the needs of his community before his own. In
Press, Health Promotion Practice, Spring, 2002
6
Satterfield D., Burd C., Valdez, L., Hosey G.
(2001, in press)The in-between people.
Participation of community health representatives
in diabetes prevention and care in American
Indian and Alaska Native communities. Health
Promotion Practice.